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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I ALPHEUS FELCH HISTORICAL LIBRARY BEQUEATHED ^ITY OF MICHIGAN 1800, ^m^rm^^fSH^HWF'^^^ V, * \ TiCliE PIR.4.TJS, VHIi . XXIV. I'''"/'' THE P I S A T 'T. . THE PIRATE. Notliing in him — But doth suffer a eea-change. Tempest* VOL. XXIV. a INTRODUCTION TO THE PIRATE, ^ Qnoth he, there was a ship.** 7his brief preface may begin like the tale of the Ancient Mariner, since it was on ship* board that the author acquired the very mo- derate degree of local knowledge and informa* tion, both of people and scenery, which he has endeavoured to embody in the romance of the Pirate. In the summer and autumn of 1814, the author was invited to join a party of Commis* ftioners for the Northern Light-House Service^ -who proposed making a voyage round the coast of Scotland, and through its various groups of islands, chiefly for the purpose of seeing the condition of the many lighthouses under thefr iv INTRODUCTION TO direction,— edifices so important, whether re« garding them as benevolent or political institu- tions. Among the commissioners who manage this important public concern, the sheriff of each county of Scotland which borders on the sea, holds ex-officio a place at the Board. These gentlemen act in eyery respect gratuitously, but have the use of an armed yacht, well found and fitted up, when they choose to visit the lighthouses. An excellent engineer, Mr Ro- bert Stevenson, is attached to the Board, to afford the benefit of his professional advice. The author accompanied this expedition as a ^est; for Selkirkshire, though it calls hini Sheriff, has not, like the kingdom of Bohemia in Corporal Trim's story, a seaport in its cir* cuit, nor its magistrate, of course, any place at the Board of Commissioners, — a circumstance of little consequence where all were old and intimate friends, bred to the same profession, and disposed to accommodate each other in ^very possible manner. The nature of the important business which was. the principal purpose of the voyage, was connected with the amusement of visiting the . leading objects of a traveller's curiosity ; for the wild cape, or formidable shelve, which THE PIRATE. V requires to be marked out by a lighthouse, is generally at no great distance from the most magnificent scenery of rocks, caves, and bil- lows. Our time, too, was at our own disposal, and, as most of us were freshwater sailors, we could at any time make a fair wind out of a foul one, and run before the gale in quest of some object of curiosity which lay under our lee. With these purposes of public utility and some personal amusement in view, we left the port of Leith on the 26th July, 1814, ran along the east coast of Scotland, viewing its different curiosities, stood over to Zetland and Orkney, where we were some time detained by the wonders of a coimtry which displayed so much that was new to us; and having seen what was curious in the Ultima Thule of the ancients, where the sun hardly thought it worth while to go to bed, since his rising was at this season so early, we doubled the extreme northern termination of Scotland, and took a rapid survey of the Hebrides, where we found many kind friends. There, that our little expedition might not want the dignity of danger, we were favoured with a distant glimpse of what was said to be an Americi^n VI INTRODUCTION TO cruiser, and had opportunity to consider what a pretty figure we should have made had the voyage ended in our heing carried captive to the United States. After visiting the romantic shores of Morven, and the vicinity of Ohan, we made a run to the coast of Ireland, and visited the Giant's Causeway, that we might compare it with Staffa, which we had survey- ed in our course. At length, ahout the middle of September, we ended our voyage in the Clyde, at the port of Greenock. And thus terminated our pleasant tour, to which our eqtdpment gave unusual facilities, as the ship's company could form a strong hoat's crew, independent of those who might be left on hoard the vessel, which permitted ua the freedom to land wherever our curiosity carried us. Let me add, while reviewing for a moment a sunny portion of my life, that among the six or seven friends who performed this voyage together, some of them doubtless of different tastes and pursuits, and remaining for several weeks on board a small vessel, there never occurred the slightest dispute or dis- agreement, each seeming anxious to submit his own particular wishes to those of his friends. By this mutual accommodation all the purpo* '. THE PIRATE. Til sesof our little expedition were o1)tained/wliile for a time we might have adopted the lines'of Allan Cunningham's fine searsong, ** The world of waters was oar hom^ And merry men were we V i»> But sorrow mixes her memorials with the purest remembrances of pleasure. On retum*^ ing from the voyage which had proved so satisfactory, I found that fate had deprived her country most unexp^tedly of a lady, qualified to adorn the high rank which she held, and who had long admitted me to a share of her friendship. The subsequent loss of one of those comrades who made up the party, and he the most intimate friend I had in the world, casts also its shade on recollections which, but for these embitterments, would be otherwise so pleasing. I may here briefly observe, that my business > any, was to endeavour to discover some locali- ties which might be ujseful in the *^ Lord of the Isles," a poem with which I was then threaten- ing the public, and was afterwards printed without attaining remarkable success. But as at the same time the anonymous novel of " Waverley" was making its way to popu- viii INTRODUCTION TO larity, I already augured the possibility of a second effort in this department of literature, and I saw much in the wild islands of the Orkneys and Zetland, which I judged might be made in the highest degree interesting, should these isles ever become the scene of a narrative of fictitious events. I learned the history of 6ow the pirate from an old siby], (the subject of a note, p. 136 of this volume,) whose principal subsistence was by a trade in favourable winds, which she sold to mariners at Stromness. Nothing could be more interest* ing than the kindness and hospitality of the gentlemen of Zetland, which was to me the more affecting, as several of them had been friends and correspondents of my father. I was induced to go a generation or two far* ther back, to find materials from which I might trace the features of the old Norwegian Udal- ler, the Scottish gentry having in general occu* pied the place of that primitive race, and their language and peculiarities of manner having entirely disappeared. The only difference now to be observed betwixt the gentry of these is- lands, and those of Scotland in general, is,'that the wealth and property is more equally divi* ded among our more northern countrymen, THE PIBATE. IX and that there exists among the resident pro- prietors no men of very great wealth, whose display of its luxuries might render the others discontented with their own lot. From the same cause of general equality of fortunes, and the cheapness of living, which is its natural consequence, I found the officers of a veteran regiment who had maintained the garrison at Fort Charlotte, in Lerwick, discomposed at the idea of being recalled from, a country where their pay, however inadequate to the expenses of a capital) was fully adequate to their wants, and it was singular to hear natives of merry England herself regretting their approaching departure from the melancholy isles of the Ul« tima Thule. Such are the trivial particulars attending £he origin of that publication, which took place several years later than the agreeable journey from which it took its rise. The state of manners which I have introdu- ced in the romance, was necessarily in a great degree imaginary, though founded in some measure on slight hints, which, showing what was, seemed to give reasonable indication of what must once have been, the tone of the X INTRODUCTION TO society in these sequestered bat interesting^ islands. In one respect I was judged somewhat has- tily, perhaps, when the character of Noma was pronounced by the critics a mere copy of Meg' Merrilees. That I had fallen short of what I wished and desired to express is iinquestion* able, otherwise my object could not have been so widely mistaken ; nor can I yet think that any person who will take the trouble of read- ing the Pirate with some attention, can fail to- trace in Noma, — the victim of remorse and in- sanity, and the dupe of her own imposture, her mind, too, flooded vrith all the wild literature and extravagant superstitions of the north,— something distinct from the Dumfries- shire gipsy, whose pretensions to supernatural powers are not beyond those of a Norwood prophetess. The foundations of such a character may be perhaps traced, though it be too true that the necessary superstructure cannot have been raised upon them, otherwise these remarks would have been unnecessary. There is also great improbability in the statement of Noma's possessing power and opportunity to impress on others that belief in her supernatural gifts which distracted her own mind. Yet, amid THE PIRATE. xi a very credulous and ignorant population, it is astonisliing what success may be attained by an impostor, who is, at the same time, an enthusiast* It is such as to remind us of the couplet which assures us that '< The pleasure is as great In bang cheated as to cheat.*' Indeed, as I have observed elsewhere, the professed explanation of a tale, where appear- ances or incidents of a supernatural character are referred to natural causes,' has often, in the winding up of the story, a degree of im- probability almost equal to an absolute goblin narrative. Even the genius of Mrs Radcliffe could not always surmount this difficulty. Abbotsfo&d, la May, 1831. THE PIRATE. ft ii II ADVERTISEMENT. 7h£ purpose of the following Narrative is to give a detailed and accurate account qf certain remarkable incidents which took place in the Orkney Islands, concerning which the more imperfect traditions and mutilated records of the country only tell us the following erroneous particulars :— In the month of January, 1724-5, a vessel^ called the Revenge, bearing twenty large guns, and six smaller, commanded by John 6ow, or GoFFE, or Smith, came to the Orkney Islands, and was discovered to be a pirate, by various acts of insolence and villainy commit- ted by the crew. These were for some time submitted to, the inhabitants of these remote islands not possessing arms^ nor means of re*^ 1 Xvi ADVERTISEMENT, sistance; and so bold was the Captain of these banditti, that he not only came ashore, and gave dancing parties in the village of Strom- ness, but before his real character was disco- vered, engaged the affections, and received the troth-plight, of a young lady possessed of some property. A patriotic individual, James Fea, younger of Clestron, formed the plan of secu- ring the buccanier, which he effected by a mixture of courage and address, in conse- quence chiefly of Gow's vessel having gone on shore near the harbour of Calfsound, on the Island of Eda, not far distant irom a house then inhabited by Mr Fea. In the various stratagems by which Mr Fea contrived final- ly, at the peril of his life, (they being well armed and desperate,) to make the whole pi« rates his prisoners, he was much aided by Mr James L aing, the grandfather of the late Mal- colm Laing, Esq. the acute and ingenious his<» torian of Scotland during the 17th centuiy. Gow, and others of his crew, suffered, by sentence of the High Court of Admiralty, the punishment their crimes had long deserved. He conducted himself with great audacity when before the Court ; and, from an account of the matter by an eye-witness, seems to have ADVERTISEMENT. XVIL been subjected to some unusual severities, in order to compel him to plead. The words are these : " John Gow would not plead, for which he was brought to the bar, and the Judge or- dered that his thumbs should be squeezed by two men, with a whip-cord, tUl it did break; and then it should be doubled, till it did again break, and then laid threefold, and that the exe- cutioners should pull with their whole strength; which sentence Gow endured with a great deal of boldness." The next morning, (27th May, 1725,) when he had seen the terrible prepara- tions for pressing him to death, his courage gave way, and he told the Marshal of Court, that he would not have given so much trouble, had he been assured of not being hanged in chsuns. He was then tried, condemned, and executed, with others of his crew. It is said, that the lady whose affections Gow had engaged, went up to London to see him before his death, and that, arriving too late, she had the courage to request a sight of his dead body; and then, touching the hand of the corpse, she formally resumed the troth- plight which she had bestowed. Without going through this ceremony, she could not, accord- ing to the superstition of the country, have VOL. XXIV. b XVlii ADVERTISEMENT. escaped a visit from the ghost of ber departed lover, in the event of her bestowing upon any living suitor the faith which she had plighted to the dead. This part of the legend may serve as a curious commentary on the fine Scottish ballad, which begins, " There came a ghost to Margaret's door," &c. The common account of this incident farther bears, that Mr Fea, the spirited individual by whose exertions Gow's career of iniquity was cut short, was so far from receiving any re- ward from Government, that he could not ob- tain even countenance enough to protect him against a variety of sham suits, raised against him by Newgate solicitors, who acted in the name of Gow, and others of the pirate crew; and the various expenses, vexatious prosecu- tions, and other legal consequences, in which his gallant exploit involved him, utterly ruin- ed his fortune, and his family; making his memory a notable example to all who shall in future take pirates on their own authority. It is to be supposed, for the honour of George the First's Government, that the last circumstance, as well as the dates, and other particulars of the commonly received story^ ADVERTISEMENT. XIX are inaccurate, since they will be found total- ly irreconcilable with the following veracious narrative, compiled from materials to which he himself alone has had access, by The Author of Waverley. THE PIRATE. CHAPTER I. The storm had ceased its wintry roar. Hoarse dash the billows of the sea; But who on Thule's desert shore, Cries, Have I bui*nt my harp for thee ? Macniel. That long, narrow, and irregular island, usually- called the mainland of Zetland, because it is by- far the largest of that Archipelago, terminates, as is well known to the mariners who navigate the stormy seas which surround the Thule of the an- cients, in a clifP of immense height, entitled Sum- burgh- Head, which presents its bare scalp and na- ked sides to the weight of a tremendous surge, form- ing the extreme point of the isle to the south-east. This lofty promontory is constantly exposed to the current of a strong and furious tide, which, setting in betwixt the Orkney and Zetland Islands, and running with force only inferior to that of the Pent- land Frith, takes its name from the headland we liave mentioned} and is called the Roost of Sum* VOL. XXIV. A •2 THE PIRATE. » bnrgh ; roost being the phrase assigned in those isles to cnrrents of this description. On the land side, the promontory is covered wiUi short grass, and slopes steeply down to a little isth- mus, upon which the sea has encroached in creeks, which, advaBcing frouL either side of the island, gradually work their way forward, and seem as if in a short time they would form a junction, and altogether insulate Sumburgh-Head, when what is now a. cape, will become a lonely mountain islet, severed from the mainiand, of which it is at present the terminating extremity. Man, however, had in former days considered this as a remote or unlikely event ; for a Norwe- gian chief of other times, or, as other accounts said, and as the name of Jarlshof seemed to imply, an ancient Earl of the Orkneys had selected this neck of land as the place for establishing a mansion-house. It has been long entirely deserted, and the vestiges only can be discerned with difficulty ; for the loose sand, borne on the tempestuous galesof those stormy regions, has overblown, and almost buried, the ruins of the buildings ; but in the end of the seventeenth century, a part of the EarFs mansion was still en- tire and habitable. It was a rude building of rough stone, with nothing about it to gratify the eye, or to excite the imagination; a large old-fkshioned nar- row house, with a very steep roof, covered with flags composed of grey sandstone, would perhaps convey the best idea of the place to a modem reader. The windows were few, very small in size, and dis- tributed up and down the building with utter oon^ THE PIRATE. 3 tenpt of regidarity. Against tbe maim staraetwe had rested, is fonoer times^ cortaiB fwyiller c€>pari- rncnts of tke mansiim-lioiise, eontaisiBg offices^ or so^ordiaate apartments, necessary for the aGoom- modatien of tke EarFa retainers and menials. But these had heeome nunms ; and the rafifcen had heea taken down for fire- wood, or for other purposes;, the walls had giren way in many places ; and, to complete thederastation, the sand had already drift- ed amongst the ruins, and filled up what had been once the chambers they contained, to the depth of two or three feet. Amid this desolation, the inhabitants of Jarlshof had contrived, by constant labour and attention^ to keep in order a few roods of land, which had been, enclosed as a garden, and which, sheltered by the walls of the house itself, from the relentless sea- blast, produced suchregetables as the climate could bring forth, or rather as the sea-gale would permit to grow ; for these islands experience eren less of the rigour of cold than is encountered on the main- land of Scotland ; but, unsheltered by a wall of some sort or other, it is scarce possible to raise even the most ordinary culinary vegetables ; and as for shrubs or trees, they are entirely out of the question, suck is the force of the sweeping sea-blast. At a short distance from the mansion, and near to the sea-beach, just where the creek forms a sort of imperfect harbour, in which lay three or four fishing-boats, there were a few most wretched cot- tages for the inhabitants and tenants of the town- ship of Jarlshofy who held the whole district of the % THE PIRATE. landlord upon such terms as were in those days* usually granted to persons of this description, and which, of course, were hard enough. The landlord himself resided upon an estate which he possessed in a more eligible situation, in a different part of the island, and seldom visited his possejssions at Sum- burgh- Head. He was an honest, plain Zetland gen- tleman, somewhat passionate, the necessary result of being surrounded by dependents ; and somewhat over-conviyial in his habits, the consequence, per- haps, of having too much time at his disposal ; but frank-tempered and generous to his people, and kind and hospitable to strangers. He was descended also of an old and noble Norwegian family ; a cir- cumstance which rendered him dearer to the lower orders, most of whom are of the same race ; while the lairds, or proprietors, are generally of Scottish extraction, who, at that early period, were still con- sidered as strangers and intruders. Magnus Troil, who deduced his descent from the very Earl who was supposed to have founded Jarlshof, was pecu- liarly of this opinion. The present inhabitants of Jarlshof had experi- enced, on several occasions, the kindness and good will of the proprietor of the territory. When Mr Mertoun — such was the name of the present inha- bitant of the old mansion — first arrived in Zetland, gome years before the story commences, he had been received at the house of Mr Troil with that warm and cordial hospitality for which the islands are dis- tinguished. No one asked him whence he came^ where he was going, what was his purpose in visit-. THE PIRATE. 5- ing SO remote a corner of the empire, or what was likely to he the term of his stay. He arrived a per- fect stranger, yet was instantly overpowered hy a succession of invitations ; and in each house which he visited, he found a home as long as he chose to accept it, and lived as one of the family, unnoticed and unnoticing, until he thought proper to remove to some other dwelling. This apparent indifference to the rank, character, and qualities of their guest, did not arise from apathy on the part of his kind hosts, for the islanders had their full share of natu- ral curiosity ; hut their delicacy deemed it would be an infringement upon the laws of hospitality, to ask questions which their guest might have found it difficult or unpleasing to answer ; and instead of endeavouring, as is usual in other countries, to wring out of Mr Mertoun such communications as he might find it agreeable to withhold, the considerate Zet- landers contented themselves with eagerly gather- ing up such scraps of information as could be col- lected in the course of conversation. But the rock in an Arabian desert is not more reluctant to afford water, than Mr Basil Mertoun was niggard in imparting his confidence, even inci- dentally ; and certainly the politeness of the gentry of Thule was never put to a more severe test than when they felt that good-breeding enjoined them to abstain from enquiring into the situation of so mysterious a personage. All that was actually known of him was easily summed up. Mr Mertoun had come to Lerwick, then rising into some importance, but not yet ac- € THE PIRATE. knowledged as the principal town of the island, m a Dutch vessel, accompanied only hy his son, a hand- some hoy of ahout fourteen years old. His o#n age might exceed forty. The Dutch skipper introduced him to some of the rery good friends with whom he used to harter gin and gingerbread for little Zet- land bullocks, smoked geese, and stockings of lamhg- wool ; and although Meinheer could only say, that << Meinheer Mertoun hab bay his bassage like one gentlemans, and hab given a Kreitz-doUar beside to the crew,'' this introduction served to establish the Dutchman's passenger in a respectable circle of acqusdntances, which gradtrally enlarged, as it ap- peared that the n^ranger was a man of considerable acquirements. This discovery was made almost per force; for Mertoun was as imwilling to speak upon general subjects, as upon his own affairs. But he was some- limes led into discussions, which showed, as it weie IB spite of himself, the scholar and the man of the world ; and, at other times, as if in requital of the hospitality which he experienced, he seemed to com- pel himself, against his fixed nature, to enter mfy[y the society of those around him, especially whefi it assumed the grave, melancholy, or satirical cast, which best suited the temper of his own mind. Up- on such occasions, the Z^laaders were universally .of opinion that he must have had an excellent edu- cation, neglected only in one striking particular, namely, that Mr Mertoun scarce knew the st«n of a ship from the stem ; and in the management of a 'hoa^f a cow could not he mere ignorant. It seemed THE PIRATE. 7 astonisliing such gross ignorance of the most ne- cessary art of life (in the Zetland Isles at least) diould «ab8i«t along with his accomplishment in Other respects ; b«t so it was. Unless called forth in the manner we have men- tioned, the habits of Basil Mertonn were retired and gloomy. From loud mirth he instantly fled ; and eren the moderated cheerfulness of a friendly party, had the invariable efiPect of throwing him in- to deeper dejection than eyen his usual demeanour indicated. Women are always particularly desirous of in- Tostigating mystery, and of aHeriating melancholy, especially when these circmnstanoes are united in a hand€M>me man about the prime of life. It is possi- ble, theiiefore, that amongst the fair-haired and blue- eyed daughters of Thule this mysterious and pen- sive stranger might have found some one to take vspoo. herself the tads, of consolation, had he shown any willingpMSS to accept such kindly offices ; but, far from doing so, he seemed even to shun the pre- sence of the sex, to which in our distresses, whether of mind or body, we generally apply for pity and comfort. To these peculiarities Mr Mertoun added another, which was particularly disagreeable to his host and principal patron, Magnus Troil. This magnate of Zetland, descended by the father's side, as we have already said, from an ancient Norwegian family, by the marriage of its representative with a Danish lady, held the devout opinion that a cup of Geneva 4KC NanrtE was specific against aU cares and afflictiona 8 THE PIKATE. whatever. These were remedies to which Mr Mer- touQ never applied ; his drink was water, and water alone, and no persuasion or entreaties could induce him to taste any stronger heverage than was afford- ed by the pure spring. Now this Magnus Troil could not tolerate ; it was a defiance to the ancient northern laws of conviviality, which, for his own part, he had so rigidly observed, that although he was wont to assert that he had never in his life gone to bed drunk, (that is, in his own sense of the word,) it would have been impossible to prove that he had ever resigned himself to slumber in a state of actual and absolute sobriety. It may be therefore asked. What did' this stranger bring into society to com- pensate the displeasure given by his austere and abstemious habits ? He had, in the first place, that manner and self-importance which mark a person of some consequence : and although it was conjec- tured that he could not be rich, yet it was certain- ly known by his expenditure that neither was he absolutely poor. He had, besides, some powers of conversation, when, as we have already hinted, he chose to exert them, and his misanthropy or aver- sion to the business and intercourse of ordinary life, was often expressed in an antithetical manner, which passed for wit, when better was not to be had. Above all, Mr Mertoun's secret seemed im- penetrable, and his presence had all the interest of a riddle, which men love to read over and over, because they cannot find out the meaning of it. Notwithstanding these recommendations, Mer- toun differed in so many material points from his THE PIRATE. 9 host, that after he had heen for some time a g^est at his principal residence, Magnus Troil was agree- ahly surprised when, one evening after they had sat two hours in absolute silence, drinking brandy and water, — that is, Magnus drinking the alcohol, and Mertoun the element, — the guest asked his host's permission to occupy, as his tenant, this deserted mansion of Jarlshof, at the extremity of the terri- tory called Dunrossness, and situated just' beneath Sumburgh-Head. << I shall be handsomely rid of him," quoth Magnus to himself, *< and his kill-joy visage will never again stop the bottle in its round. His departure will ruin me in lemons, however, for his mere look was quite sufficient to sour a whole ocean of punch." Yet the kind-hearted Zetlander generously and disinterestedly remonstrated with Mr Mertoun on the solitude and inconveniences to which he was about to subject himself. << There were scarcely," he said, << even the most necessary articles of fur- niture in the old house — there was no society within many miles — ^for provisions, the principal article of food would be sour siilocks, and his only company gulls and gannets." " My good friend," replied Mertoun, " if you could have named a circumstance which would ren- der the residence more eligible to me than any other, it is that there would be neither human lux- ury nor human society near the place of my re- treat ; a shelter from the weather for my own head, and for the boy's, is all I seek for. So name your rent, Mr Troil, and let me be your tenant at Jarlshof." 10 ' THE PIKATE. ^ Rent ?" answered the Zetlander ; " wliy, ii<^ great rent for an old house which no one has lived in since my mother's time — God rest her I — and as for shelter, the old walls are thick enongh, and will bear many a bang yet. Bat, Hearen love yon, Mr Mertoun, think what yon are purposing. For one of us to live at Jarkhof, were a wild scheme enough; but you, who are from another country, whether Snglish, Scotch, or Irish, no one can tell" << Nor does it greatly matter," said Mertoun, somewhat abruptly. ^ Not a herring's scale," answered the Laird ; << only that I like you the better for being no Scot, as I trust you are not one. Hither they hare come like the clack-geese — every chamberlain has brought over a i^o(k. of his own name, and his own hatclung^ lor what I know, and here they roost for ever — eatdii them returning to th^r own barren Highlands or Lowlands, when once they have tasted our Zetland beef, and seen our bonny voes and lochs. No, sir,** (here Magnus proceeded with great animation, sip« ping from time to time the half-dilated spirit, whi^ at the same time animated his resentptient against the intruders, and enabled him to endure the mor- tifying reflection which it suggested^) — << No, sir, the ancient days and the genuine manners of these Islands >are no more ; for our ancient possessors,-— > our Paterscms, o«r Feas, our Schlagbrenners, our Thorbioms, have given place to GifPords, Scotts, Mouats, men whose names bespeak them or their ancestors strangers to the soil which we the Troils have inhabited long before the days of Turf-Einar, THE PIRATE. 11 'wko first tasglit tkese Isles the mystery of burning^ peat for fuel, and who has been handed down to a gnrtefol posterity by a name which records the dis- €ov«y." This was a subject upon which the potentate of Jarkhof was usually very diffuse, and Mertoun saw liim enter upon it with pleasure, because he knew lie should not be called upon to contribute any aid to the conversation, and might therefore indulge hi» own saturnine humour while die Norwegian Zet- land^ declaimed on the change of times and inha* bitants. But just as Magnus had arrired at the me- lancholy conduffiion, '< how probable it was, that in anotlier century scarce a merk — scarce even an ure of land, would be in the possession of the Norse in- babitaBis, the true Udallers* of Z^and," be recol- lected the circumstances of his guest, and stopped soddenly short. <^ I do not say all this," he added,^ latemiptiiig himself, <* as if I were unwilling that you should settle on my estate, Mr Mertoun — Bat for Jarlshof — ^the place is a wild one — ^Come from where you will, I warrant you will say, like otiier travellers, you came fromabett^ climate than ovr8> for so say you all. And yet ywa think of a retreat, whick the very natives run away from. Will you not take your glass ?" — (This was to be cmisidered as inteijectional,) — *^ tben here's to you." ^ My good sir," answered Mertoun, ^* I am m- difPerent to climate ; if there is but air enongh to fill • The Udallers are the allodial i>os8e8sor8 of Zetland, who hold their possessions under the old Norwegian law, instead of the feudal tenures introduced mmong them from Scotland, 12 THE PIRATE. my langs, I care not if it be the breath of Arabia or of Lapland." " Air enough you may have," answered Magnus, << no lack of that — somewhat damp, strangers allege it to be, but we know a corrective for that — Here's to you, Mr Mertoun — You must learn to do so, and to smoke a pipe ; and then, as you say, you will find the air of Zetland equal to that of Arabia. But have you seen Jarlshof ?" The stranger intimated that he had not. " Then," replied Magnus, " you have no idea of your undertaking. If you think it a comfortable roadstead like this, with the house situated on the side of an inland voe,* that brings the herrings up to your door, you are mistaken, my heart. At Jarlshof you will see nought but the wild waves tumbling on the bare rocks, and the Roost of Sum- . burgh running at the rate of fifteen knots an-hour." << I shall see nothing at least of the current of human passions," replied Mertoun. *< You will hear nothing but the clanging and screaming of scar ts, sheer- waters, and seagulls, from daybreak till sunset" << I will compound, my friend," replied the stran- ger, « so that I do not hear the chattering of wp- men's tongues." " Ah," said the Norman, " that is because you hear just now my little Minna and Brenda singing in the garden with your Mordaunt. Now, I would rather listen to their little voices, than the skylark • Salt-water lake. THE PIRATE. 13^ which I once heard in Caithness, or the nightingale that I have read of. — What will the girls do for want of their playmate Mordaunt ?" " They will shift for themselves," answered Mer- tonn ; " younger or elder they will find playmates or dupes. — But the question is, Mr Troil, will you let to me, as your tenant, this old mansion of Jarlshof ?" << Gladly, since you make it your option to live in a spot so desolate." << And as for the rent ?" continued Mertoun. " The rent?" replied Magnus ; " hum — why, you must have the bit of plantie crwiVe,* which they once called a garden, and a right in the scatholdy and a sixpenny merk of land, that the tenants may fish for you ; — eight lispunds-^ of butter, and eight shil- lings sterling yearly, is not too much ?" Mr Mertoun agreed to terms so moderate, and from thenceforward resided chiefly at the solitary mansion which we have described in the beginning of this chapter, conforming not only without com- plaint, but, as it seemed, with a sullen pleasure, to all the privations which so wild and desolate a si- tuation necessarily imposed on its inhabitant. * Patch of ground for vegetables. The liberal custom of the country permits any person, who has occasion for such a con- venience, to select out of the unenclosed moorland a small patch, which he surrounds with a drystone wall, and cultivates as a kail-yard, till he exhausts the soil with cropping, and then he deserts it, and encloses another. This liberty is so far from in- ferring an invasion of the right of proprietor and tenant, that the last degree of contempt is inferred of an avaricious man, when a Zetlander says he would not hold a plantie cruive of him. "t* A lispund is about thirty pounds English, and the value is averaged by Dr Edmonston at ten shillings sterling. ti THE PIBATE» CHAPTER n. ^Tis not alone the scene— tbe man, AmeliiM^ The man finds sympathies in these wild wastesy And roagbly tumbling seas, which fairer views And smoother waves deny him. Jlnci^nt JDhrttnuit* The few inhabitants of the township of Jarlshof had at first heard with alarm, that a person of rank soperior to their own was come to reside in the ruin- oas tenement, which they still called the Castle. In those days (for the present times are greatly alter- ed for the better) the presence of a superi(v, in such, a situation, ^as almost certain to be attended with additional burdens and exactions, for which, under and presently resuming the various and numerous^ occupations which devolved on her, seemed as deeply engaged in household cares as if she had never been out of office. The first day of her return to h^r duty, Swertha made no appearance in presence of her master, bat THE PimATE. ft tnuted tlwl afiter his three days' cKet cut eeld meat* a Wt dish, divssed with the best of her siraple skilly ndglKt introdooe her favourably to hk recoUeetkw, When MordMmt had r^orted that his father had taken no notice of tlus chaise of diet, and when she lierseif observed that in passing and repassing him occasionally, ber appearance produced no effect upon her sii^alar rna^v^ she began to imagine that IJm whole affair had escaped Mr Mertoun's memo- ry, and was active in h^ duty as usual. Neither was she convinced of the contrary until one day» when, happening somewhat to elevate her tone in a dispute with the other maid-servant, her master^ who at that time passed the place of contest, eyed he^ with a strong glance, and pronounced the sin- gle word, JRemember ! in a tone which taught S wer- tha the government of her tongue for many weeka after. If Mertoun was whimsical in his mode of govern*^ ing his household, he seemed no less so in his plan of educating his son. He showed the youth but few symptoms of parental affection ; yet, in his ordinary^ state of mind, the improvement of Mordaunt*s edu- cation seemed to be the utmost object of his life. He had both books and information sufficient to discharge the task of tutor in the ordinary branches of knowledge ; and in this capacity was regular^ calm, and strict, not to say severe, in exacting from, his pupil the attention necessary for his profiting. But in the perusal of history, to which their atten- tion was frequently turned, as well as in the study of dassio authors, there often occurred facts or 22: THE PIRATE. sentiments which prodaced an instant effect Qpoii^ Mertonn's mind, and brought on him .suddenly what Swertha, Sweyn, and even Mordaunt, came to dis- tinguish by the name of his dark hour. He was aware, in the usual case, ot its approach, and re- treated to an inner apartment, into which he never permitted even Mordaunt to enter. Here he would abide in seclusion for days, and even weeks, only coming out at uncertain times, to take such food as they had taken care to leave within his reach, which he used in wonderfully small quantities. At other times, and especially during the winter solstice, when almost every person spends the gloomy time : within doors in feasting and merriment, this un- happy man would wrap himself in a dark-coloured sea-cloak, and wander out along the stormy beach, or upon the desolate heath, indulging his own gloomy and wayward reveries under the inclement sky, the rather that he was then most sure to wan- der unencountered and unobserved. As Mordaunt grew older, he learned to note the particular signs which preceded these fits of gloomy despondency, and to direct such precautions as might ensure his unfortunate parent from ill-timed inter- ruption, (which had always the effect of driving him to fury,) while, at the same time, full provision was made for his subsistence. Mordaunt perceived that at such periods the melancholy fit of his father was greatly prolonged, if he chanced to present himself to his eyes while the dark hour was upon him. Out of respect, therefore, to his parent, as well as to in- dulge the love of active exercise and of amusement > THE PIRATE* 23 to his period of life, Mordaunt used often to absent himself altogether from the mansion of Jarlshofy and even from the district, secure that his father, if the dark hour passed away in his absence, would be little inclined to enquire how his son had disposed of his leisure, so that he was sure he had not watched his own weak moments ; that being the subject on which he entertained the utmost jealousy. At such times, therefore, all the sources of amuse- ment which the country afforded, were open to the younger Mertoun, who, in these intervals of his education, had an opportunity to give full scope to the energies of a bold, active, and daring character. He was often engaged with the youth of the hamlet in those desperate sports, to which the << dreadful trade of the samphire-gatherer" is like a walk upon level ground — often joined those midnight excur- sions upon the face of the giddy cliffs, to secure the eg^ or the young of the sea-fowl ; and in these daring adventures displayed an address, presence of mind, and activity, which, in one so young, and not a native of the country, astonished the oldest fowlers.* At other times, Mordaunt accompanied Sweyn * Fatal accidents, however, sometimes occur. When I visited the Fair Isle in 1814, a poor lad of fourteen had been killed by a fall from the rocks about a fortnight before our snrival. The accident happened almost within sight of his mother, who was casting peats at no great distance. The body fell into the sea, and was seen no more. But the islanders account this an honourable mode of death ; and as the children begin the practice of climbing very early, fewer accidents occur than might be expected. 24 THE PIRATE*' and otfcer fisdiermen in their long and periloi» eac-^ peditions to the distant and deep 8ea> learmng under their direction the management of the boat,, in which they equal, or exceed, perhaps, any natlfeg of the British empire; This exercise had charms for Mordaunt, independently of the fishing al«ii«. At this time, the old Norwegian sagas weremudi remembered, and often rehearsed, by the fishermen, who still preserved among themselves the aacknt Norse tongue, which was the speech of their ^e- fathers. In the dark romance of those Scandina- vian tales, lay much that was ci^tivating to a. youthful ear ; and the classic fables of antiquity were rivalled at least, if not excelled, in Mordaunt's opinion, by the strange legends ef Berserkars, of Sea-kings, of dwarfs, giants, and sorcerers, which he heard from the native Zetlanders* Often the scenes around him were assigned as the localities of the wild poems, which, half recited, half chanted by voices as hoarse, if not so loud, as the waves over which they floated, pointed ont the very bay on which they sailed as the scene of a bloody sea-fight ; the scarce-seen heap of stones that bristled over the projecting cape, as the dun, or castle, of some potent earl or noted pirate ; the distant and solitary grey stone on the lonely moor, as marking the grave of a hero ; the wild cavern, up which the sea rolled in heavy, broad, and unbroken billows, as the dwell- ing of some noted sorceress.^ * Note I.J p. 29. Noi*8e Fragments. THE PIKATE. SS The acean abo had its mysteries,- the effect of which was aided by the dim twilight, through which it was imperfectly seen for more than half the year. Its bottomless depths and secret cares contained, according to the account of Sweyn and others, skilled in legendary lore, such wonders as modent lunrigators reject with disdain. In the qniet moon- light bay, wh^re the waves came rippling to the shore, upon a bed*of smooth sand intermingled with shells, tike mermaid was still seen to glide along the waters, and, mingling her voice with the sigh- ing breeze, was often heard to sing of subterraaean wonders, or to chant prophecies of future events.. The kraken, that hugest of living things, was still trapposed to cumber the recesses of the Northern ' Ocean ; and often, when some fog-bank covered the sea at a distance, the eye of the experienced boat- men saw the horns of the monstrous leviathan welk- ing and waving amidst the wreaths of mist, and bore away with aU press of oar and sail, lest the sudden suction, occasionedJ[>y the sinking of the monstrous mass to the bottom, i^ould drag within the grasp of its multifarious feelers his own frail skiff. The sea-snake was also known, which, arising out of the depths of ocean, stretches to the skies his enormous neck, covered with a mane like that of a war-horse, and with its broad glittering eyes, raised mast-head high, looks out, as it seems, for plunder or for victims. Many prodigious stories of these marine monsters, and of many others less known, were then univer- sally received among the Zetlanders, whose de- I 26 THE PIRATE. scendants liare not as yet by any means abandoned faith in them.* Such legends are, indeed, everywhere current amongst the vulgar ; but the imagination is far more powerfully affected by them on the deep and dan- gerous seas of the north, amidst precipices and head- lands, many hundred feet in height, — ^amid perilous straits, and currents, and eddies, — long sunken reefs of rock, over which the vivid ocean foams and boils, — dark caverns, to whose extremities neither man nor skiff has ever ventured, — lonely, and often uninhabited isles, — and occasionally the ruins of ancient northern fastnesses, dimly seen by the fee- ble light of the Arctic winter. To Mordaunt, who had much of romance in his disposition, these su- perstitions formed a pleasing and interesting exer- cise of the imagination, while, half doubting, haif inclined to believe, he listened to the tales chanted concerning these wonders of nature, and creatures of credulous belief, told in the rude but energetic language of the ancient Scalds. But there wanted not softer and lighter amuse- ment, that might seem better suited to Mordaunt's age, than the wild tales and rude exercises which we have already mentioned. The season of winter, when, from the shortness of the daylight, labour becomes impossible^ is in Zetland the time of revel, feasting, and merriment. Whatever the fisherman has been able to acquire during summer, was ex- pended, and often wasted, in maintaining the mirth * Note II., p. so. Monsters of the Northern Seas. THE PIRATE. 87 and hospitalitf of his hearth duriBg this period ; while the landholders and gentlemen of the island gave double loose to their convivial and hospitable dispositions, thronged their houses with guests, and drove away the rigour of the season with jest, glee^ and song, the dance, and the wine- cup. Amid the revels of this merry, though rigorous season, no youth added more spirit to the dance, or glee to the revel, than the young stranger, Mor- daunt Mertoun. When his father's state of mind permitted, or indeed required, his absence, he wan- dered from house to house a welcome guest where- ever he came, and lent his willing voice to the song, and his foot to the dance. A boat, or, if the wea* ther, as was often the case, permitted not that con- venience, one of the numerous ponies, which, stray- ing in hordes about the extensive moors, may be said to be at any man's command who can catch them, conveyed him from the mansion of one hospitable Zetlander to that of another. None excelled him in performing the warlike sword-dance, a species of amusement which had been derived froni the habits of the ancient Norsemen. He could play upon the gue^ uid upon the common violin, the melancholy and pathetic tunes peculiar to the country ; and with great spirit and execution could relieve their mono- tony with the livelier airs of the North of Scotland. When a party set forth as maskers, or, as they are called in Scotland, ^t^tzrar^f^, to visit some neighbour- ing Laird, or rich Udaller, it augured well of the expedition if Mordaunt Mertoun could be prevailed upon to undertake the office of skudler^ or leader of 28 THE PimAT& the band. Upon th«se occasions, full of fim frolic, he led his retinue from house to house, bring- ing mirth where he went, and learing regret whan he departed. Mordaunt became thss generally known, and belored as generally, through most cKf the houses composmg the patriarchal community o£ the Main Isle; but his visits were most frequent- ly and most willingly paid at the mansion of his father's landlord and protector, Magnus TroiL • It was not entirely the hearty and sinc^e wel- come of the worthy old Magnate, ner the s^ise that he was in effect his father's patron, which oc- casioned these frequent risits. The hand of wel- come was indeed received as eagerly as it was sin- cerely given, while the ancient Udaller, raising himself in his huge chair, whereof the inside was lined with well-dressed sealskins, and the outside C(Hnposed of massive oak, carved by the rude gra- ving-tool of some Hamburgh carpenter, shouted forth his welcome in a tone, which might, in an- cient times, have hailed the return of loul, the highest festival of the Goths. There was metal yet more attractive, and younger hearts, whose welcome, if less loud, was as sincere as that of the jolly Udaller. But this is matter which ought not to be discussed at the conclusiim of a chapter. ¥H£ PIBAT£. 29 NOTES TO CHAPTER IL Note 1; p. 21.— Norsk FKAGMzirrs. Near the oondusion of this chapter it is noticed that the oM Norwegian sagas were prMerved and often repeated by the fisher- men of Orlcney and Zetland, while that language was not yet quite forgotten. Mr Baikie of Tankerness, a most respectable inhabitant of Kirkwall, and an Orkney proprietor, assured me oi the following curious fact. A clergyman, who was not long deceased, remembered wdl when some remnants of the Norse were still spoken in the island caUed North Ronaldshaw. When Gray's Ode, entitled the- ** Fatal Sisters,'* was first published, or at least first reached that remote island, the reyerend gentleman had the well-judged curio- aty to read it to some of the old persons of the isle, as a poem -which r^arded the history of their own country. They listen-* cd with great attention to the preliminary stanzas :— *' Now the storm begins to lour. Haste the loom of hell prepare. Iron sleet of arrowy shower Hurtles in the darken'd air.*' But when they had heard a verse or two more, they interrupted the reader, telling him they knew the song well in the Norse lan- guage, and bad often sung it to him when he asked them for an old song. They called it the Magicians, or the Enchantresses. It would have been singular news to the elegant translator, when executing his version from the text of Bartholine, to have learned that the Norse original was still preserved by tradition in a remote corner of the British dominions. The circumstances will probably justify what is said in the text concerning the tradi- tions of the inhabitants of those remote isles, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Even yet, though the Norse language is entirely disused, ex- cept in so far as particular words and phrases are still retained,, these fishers of the Ultima Thule are a generation much attached 80 7HE PIRATE* to theM ancient l^ends. Of this the author learned a singular instance. About tnrenty years ago, a missionary clergyman had taken the resolution of traversing those wild islands, whci*e he sup- TpmtA there might be a lack of religious instructioni which he believed himself capable of supplying. After being some days at sea in an open boat, he arrived at Narth Ronaldshaw, where his appearance excited great speculation. Ha waa a very little man, dark-complexioned, and from the fatigue be had soslaiBci iia removing from one island to another, appeared before them ilT- dressed and unshaved ; so that the inhabitants set him dpwn as one of the Ancient Picts, or, as they call them with the usual strong guttural, Peghts. How they might have received ^he poor preacher in this character, was at least dubious ; and tlye school- master of the parish, who had given quarters to the fatigued tra- veller, set off to consult with Mr S , the able and ingenioua engineer of the Scottish Light-House Service, who chanced to be on the island. As his skill and knowledge were in the high- est repute, it was conceived that Mr S— ^ could decide at once whether the stranger was a Peght, or ought to be treated as such. Mr S was so good-natured as toattend the summons, with the view of rendering the preacher some service. The poor missionary, who had vratched for three nights, was now fast asleep, little dreaming what odious suspicions were current respecting him. The inhabitants were assembled round the door. Mr S , understanding the traveller's condition, declined disturbing him, upon which the islanders produced a pair of very little uncouth-looking boots, with prodigiously thick soles, and appealed to him whether it was possible such articles of raiment could belong to any one but a Peght. Mr S , finding the prejudices of the natives so strong, was Induced to enter the sleeping apartment of the trjiveller, and was surprised to recog. nise in the supposed Peght a person whom he had known in his worldly profession of an Edinburgh shopkeeper, before he had assumed his present vocation. Of course he was enabled to refute all suspicions of P^htism. Note Il.y p. 26.— MoKSTE&s of the NoaTHzaK Seas. I have said, in the text, that the wondrous tales told by Pon- loppidan, the Archbishop of Upsal, still find believers in the THE PIRATE; 31 Northern Arcbipelajsro. It is in vain they are cancelled even in the later editions of Guthrie*s Grammar, of which instructive work they used to form the chapter far m4Mt attra c it iv to jwpfr- nlle readers. But the waamm tmaum which prohably gave birth to the I cgMwb twmini ing mermaids, sea-snakes, krakens, and other iBBrvellouB inhabitants of the Northern Ocean, are still afloat in those dimates where they took their rise. They had their origin probably from the eagerness of curiosity manifested by our ele- gant poetess, Mrs Hemans : " What hidest thou in thy treasure-caves and oe]ls« Thou ever* sounding and mysterious Sea 2'* The additional mystic gloom which rests on these northern billows for half the year, joined to the imperfect glance obtain- ed of occasional objects, encourage the timid or the fanciful to give way to imagination, and frequently to shape out a distinct story from some object half seen and imperfectly examined. Thus, some years since, a large object was observed in the beau- tiful Bay of Scalloway in Zetland, so much in vulgar opinion resembling the kraken, that though it might be distinguished lor several days, if the exchange of darkness to twilight can be termed so, yet the hardy boatmen shuddered to approach it, for fear of being drawn down by the suction supposed to attend its sinking. It was probably the hull of some vessel which had foundered at sea. The belief in mermaids, so fanciful and pleasing in itself, is ever and anon refreshed by a strange tale from the remote shores of some solitary islet. The author heard a mariner of some reputation in his class vouch for having seen the celebrated sea-serpent. It appeared, so far as could be guessed, to be about a hundred feet long, 'with the wild mane and fiery eyes which old writers ascribe to the mon- ster ; but it is not unlikely the spectator might, in the doubtful light, be deceived by the appearance of a good Norway log float- ing on the waves. I have only to add, that the remains of an animal, supposed to belong to this latter species, were driven on shore in the Zetland Isles, within the recollection of man. Part of the bones were sent to London, and pronounced by Sir Joseph Banks to be those of a basking shai'k ; yet it would seem that an animal so well known, ought to have been immediately distin<* goished by the northern fishermeD* SS VHX FIEATE. CHAPTER III. ^' O, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, They were twa bonnie lasses ; They biggit a house on yon bum-bra^ And theekit it ower wi* rashes. Fair Bessy Bell I looed yestreen, And thoaght I ne'er coold alter ; But Mary Gray*s twa pawky een Have garr*d my fancy falter," Scots Song» We liaye already mentioned Minna and Brenda, tlie daughters of Magnus Troil. Their mother had been dead for many years, and they were now two beautiful girls, the eldest only eighteen, which might be a year or two younger than Mordannt Mertoun, the second about seventeen, — They were the joy of their father's heart, and the light of his old eyes ; and although indulged to a degree which might have endangered his comfort and their own, they repaid his affection with a love, into which even blind indulgence had not introduced slight regard, or feminine caprice. The difference of their tempers and of their complexions was singularly striking, although combined, as is usual, with a certain degree of family resemblance. The mother of these maidens had been a Scot- tish lady from the Highlands of Sutherland; the THE PIRATE. SB orphan of a noble chief, who, driven from his own country during the feuds of the seventeenth century, had found shelter in those peaceful islands, which, amidst poverty and seclusion, were thus far happy, that they remained unvexed by discord, and unstain- ed by civil broil. The father (his name was Saint Clair) pined for his native glen, his feudal tower, his clansmen, and his fallen authority, and died not long after his arrival in Zetland. The beauty of his orphan daughter, despite her Scottish lineage, melted the stout heart of Magnus Troil. He sued and was listened to, and she became his bride ; but dying in the fifth year of their union, left him to mourn his brief period of domestic happiness. From her mother, Minna inherited the stately^ form and dark eyes, the raven locks and finely-pen- cilled brows, which showed she was, on one side at least, a stranger to the blood of Thule. Her cheek,— « O callit fair, not pale!" was so slightly and delicately tinged with the rose, that many thought the lily had an undue proportion in her complexion. But in that predominance of the paler flower, there was nothing sickly or lan- guid ; it was the true natural colour of health, and corresponded in a peculiar degree with features, which seemed calculated to express a contemplative and high-minded character. When Minna Troil heard a tale of woe or of injustice, it was then her blood rushed to her cheeks, and showed plainly how warmit beat, notwithstanding the generally serious, composed, and retiring disposition, which her coun- VOIi. XXIV. 34 THE PIRATE. tenance and demeanour seemed to ■e:idiilnt. Ifetmi- ^ers sometimes oomoeiFed that these fine features were clouded by melanchoily, for which her age asid mtuatioa couldscarce haTegiren occasiim, they weve soon satisfied, upon further acijnaistanoe, that tiMi placid, mild quietude of her dispositioD, and the mental energy of a character which was hut Ittde interested in ordinary and triyial occurrences, was the real cause of her gravity ; and most men, when they knew that h^* melanclioly had no ground in real sorrow, and was only the aspiration of a soni bent on more important objects than those hy which «he was surrounded, might have wished her what- ever* could add to her happiness, but could scarce havie desired that, graceful as she was in her natu- ral and unaffected seriousness, she should change that deportment for one more gay. In short, not- withstanding our wish to have avoided that hadk- neyed simile of .an angel, we cannot avoid saying there was something in the serious beauty of her aspect, in the measured, yet graceful ease of her motions, in the music of her voice, and the serene purit^f of her eye, that seemed as if Minna TroH belonged naturally to some higher and better sphere, and was only the chance visitant of a world that was not worthy of her. The scarcely less beautiful^ equal^ lovely, and equally innocent Brenda, was of a complexion- as differing from her sister, as they differed in cha- racter, taste, and expression. Her profuse loda were of that paly brown which receives from the passing sunbeam a tinge of gold, but darkens again THE PIRATE. S5 wben the ray has passed from it. Her eye, lier mouth, the beautiful row of teeth, which in her innocent vivacity were frequently disclosed ; the fresh, yet net too bright glow of a healthy com- plexion, tinging a skin like the drifted snow, spoke iter genuine Scandinavian descent. A fairy form, less tall than that of Minna, but still more finely moulded into symmetry — a careless, and almost childish lightness of step — an eye that seemed to look on every object with pleasure, from a natural and serene cheerfulness of disposition, attracted of study- ing the lessons, bequeathed « By dead men to their kind ;** and Magnus Troil, such as we have described him, was not a person within whose mansion the m Quendale, Thors- Mvoe, and I know not who else, are expected ; and, besides the thirty that were in house this blessed night, we shall have as many more as chamber and bower, and bam and boat-house, can furnish with beds, or with barley-s^aw, — and you will leave all this behind you I"' << And the blithe dance at night," added Brenda, in a tone betwixt reproach and vexation ; << and the young men from the Isle of Paba that are to dance the sword-dance^ whom shall we find to match them, for the honour of the Maim ?" << There is many a merry dancer on ^e mainland, Brenda," replied Mordaunt, <^ even if I should never rise on tiptoe again. And where good dancers are found, Brenda Troil will always find the best part- ner. I must trip it to-night through the Wastes of Dunrossness." 44 THE PIRATE. << Do not gay so, Mordaunt," said Minna, who, during this conversation, had been looking from the window something anxiously ; " go not, to-day at least, through the Wastes of Dunrossness." << And why not to-day, Minna,'' said Mordaunt, laughing, " any more than to-morrow ?" << O, the morning mist lies heavy upon yonder chain of isles, nor has it permitted us since daybreak even a single glimpse of Fitful-head, the lofty cape that concludes yon splendid range of mountains. The fowl are winging their way to the shore, and the shelldrake seems, through the mist, as large as the scart.^ See, the very sheerwaters and bonxies are making to the cliffs for shelter." << And they will ride out a gale against a king's frigate," said her father ; << there is foul weather when they cut and run." <^ Stay, then, with us," said Minna to her friend ; ^' the storm will be dreadful, yet it will be grand to see it from Burgh- Westra, if we have no friend ex- posed to its fury. See, the air is close and sultry, though the season is yet so early, and the day so calm, that not a windlestraw moves on the heath. Stay with us, Mordaunt ; the storm which these signs announce will be a dreadful one." << I must be gone the sooner," was the conclusion of Mordaunt, who could not deny the signs, which had not escaped his own quick observation. << If * The cormorant ; which may be seen frequently dashing in wild flight along the roosts and tides of Zetland, and yet more often drawn up in ranks on some ledge of rock, like a body of the Black Brunswickers in 1815. THE PIRATE. 45 the storm be too fierce, I will abide for the night at Stourburgh." « What I" said Magnus ; " will you leave us for the new chamberlain's new Scotch tacksman, who is to teach all us Zetland savaires new ways ? Take yoar own gate, my lad, if tha?is the song you sing." ** Nay," said Mordaunt ; " I had only some cu- riosity to see the new implements he has brought." << Ay, ay, ferlies make fools fain. I would like to know if his new plough will bear against a Zet- land rock ?" answered Magnus. << I must not pass Stourburghon the journey," said the youth, deferring to his patron's prejudice against innovation, "if this boding weather bring on tem- pest ; but if it only break in rain, as is most proba- ble, I am not likely to be melted in the wetting." << It will not soften into rain alone," said Minna ; *' see how much heavier the clouds fall every mo- ment, and see these weather-gaws that streak the lead-coloured mass with partial gleams of faded red and purple." ^ I see them all," said Mordaunt ; << but they only tell me I have no time to tarry here. Adieu, Minna ; I will send you the eagle's feathers, if an eagle can be found on Fair-isle or Foulah. And fare thee well, my pretty Brenda, and keep a thought for me, should the Paba men dance ever so well." " Take care of yourself, since go you will," said botb sisters, together. Old Magnus scolded them formally for supposing there was any danger to an active young fellow from a spring gale, whether by sea or land ; yet ended 46 THE PIRATE. hj giving his own caution also to MordauBt, advi- sing him seriously to delay his journey, or at least to stop at Stourhurgh. '< For," said he, " second thoughts are hest ; and as this Scottishman's howf lies right under your lee, why, take any port in a storm. Bat do not he assured to find the door on latch, let the storm hlow ever so hard ; there are such matters as holts and hars in Scotland, though^ thanks to Saint Ronald, they are unknown here, save that great lock on the old Castle of Scalloway, that all men run to see — ^may he they make part of this man's improvements. But go, Mordaunt, since go you will. You should drink a stirrup-cup now, were you three years older, hut hoys should nevw drink, excepting after dinner ; I will drink it for you, that good customs may not he hroken, or had luck come of it. Here is your bonally, my lad.'^ And so saying, he quaffed a rummer glass of bran- dy with as much impunity as if it had been spring- water. Thus regretted and cautioned on all hands, Mordaunt took leave of the hospitable household, •and looking back at the comforts with which it was surrounded, and the dense smoke that rolled up- wards from its chimneys, he first recollected the guestless and solitary desolation of Jarlshof, then compared with the sullen and moody melancholy of his father's temper the warm kindness of those whom he was leaving, and could not refrain from A sigh at the thoughts which fcnroed themselves on his imagination. The sig^s of the tempest did not dishonour the predictions of Minna. Mordaunt had not advanced THE PIRATE. 4T tliree bonrs cm kis jonraeyy before the wind, whidt had been so deadly still in the morning, began at first to wail and sigh, as if bemoanhig beforehand the evils which it might perpetrate in its fary, like a madman in the gloomy state of d^ection which precedes his fit of violence ; then graduaOy increa- sing, the gale howled, raged, and roared, with ike full fury of a northern storm. It was accompanied by showers of rain mixed with hail, that dashed with the most unrelenting rage against the hills and rocks with which the traveller was surrounded, distracting' his attentidn, in spite of his utmost exertions, and rendering it very difficult for him to keep the di- rection of his journey in a country where there is neither road, nor even the slightest track to direct the steps of the wanderer, and where he is often in- terrupted by brooks as well as large pools of water^ lakes, and lagoons. All these inland waters were BOW lashed into sheets of tumbling foam, much of which, carried off by the fury of the whirlwind, was mingled with the gale, and transported far from the waves of which it had lately made a part ; while the salt relish of the drift which was pelted against fais face, showed Mordaunt that the spray of the more distant ocean, disturbed to frenzy by the storm, was mingled with that of the inland lakes and streams. Amidst this hideous combustion of the elements, Mordaunt Mertoun struggled forward as one to whom such elemental war was familiar, and who re- garded the exertions which it required to withstand its fary, but as a mark of resolution and manhfMHl* He felt even, as happens usually to those who en- 48 THE PIRATE, dure ^eat hardships, that the exertion necessary to subdue them, is in itself a kind of elevating triumph. To see and distinguish his path when the cattle were driven from the hill, and the very fowls from the firmament, was but the stronger proof of his own superiority. " They shall not hear of me at Burgh- "Westra," said he to himself, " as they heard of old doited Ringan Ewenson's boat, that foundered be- twixt roadstead and key. I am more of a cragsman than to mind fire or water, wave by sea, or quag- mire by land." Thus he struggled on, bufi^eting with the storm, supplying the want of the usual signs by which travellers directed their progress, (for rock, mountain, and headland, were shrouded in mist and darkness,) by the instinctive sagacity with which long acquaintance with these wilds had taught him to mark every minute object, which could serve in such circumstances to regulate his course. Thus, we repeat, he struggled onward, occasionally stand- ing still, or even lying down, when tha gust was most impetuous ; making way against it when it was somewhat luUed, by a rapid and bold advance even in its very current ; or, when this was impossible, by a movement resembling that of a vessel working to windward by short tacks, but never yielding one inch of the way which he had fought so hard to gain. Yet, notwithstanding Mordaunt's experience and resolution, his situation was sufficiently uncomfort- able, |ind even precarious ; not because his sailor's jacket and trowsers, the common dress of young men through these isles when on a journey, were thoroughly wet; for that might have taken place THE PIRATS*. 49 Within tite same brief time, in any ordinary day, in this watery climate ; but the real danger waa, that, notwithstanding his utmost exertions, he made very slow way through brooks that were sending their waters all abroad, through morasses drowned in double deluges of moisture, which rendered all the ordinary passes more than u8U9lly dangerous, and repeatedly obliged the traveller to perform a considerable circuit, which in the usual case was un- necessary. Thus repeatedly baffled, notwithstand* ing his youth and strength, Mordannt, after main- taining a dogged conflict with wind, rain, and the fatigue of a prolonged journey, was truly happy, when, not without having been more than once mis- taken in his road, he at length found himself within sight of the house of Stourburgh, or Harfra ; for the names were indifferently given to the residence of Mr Triptolemus Yellowley, who was the chosen missionary of the Chamberlain of Orkney and Zet- land, a speculative person, who designed, through the medium of Triptolemus, to introduce into the Ultima Thfde of the Romans, a spirit of improve- ment, which at that early period was scarce known to exist in Scotland itself. At length, and with much difficulty, Mordannt reached the house of this worthy agriculturist, the only refuge from the relentless storm which he could hope to meet with for several miles ; and going straight to the door, with the most undoubting con- fidence of instant admission, he was not a little sur- prised to find it not merely latched, which the wea* TOL* XXIT* I> 50 THE PIRATE. ther might excuse, but even bolted, a thing which, as Magfnus Troil has ah*eady intimated, was almost unknown in the Archipelago. To knock, to call, and finally to batter the door with staff and stones, were the natural resources of the youth, who was rendered alike impatient by the pelting of the storm, and by encountering such most unexpected and unu- sual obstacles to instant admission. As he was suf- fered, however, for many- minutes to exhaust his impatience in noise and clamour, without receiving any reply, we will employ them in informing the reader who Triptolemus Yellowley was, and how he came by a name so singular. Old Jasper Yellowley, the father of Triptolemus, (though born at the foot of Roseberry-Topping,) had been come over by a certain noble Scottish Earl, who, proving too far north for canny Yorkshire, had persuaded him to accept of a farm in the Meams, where, it is unnecessary to add, he found matters very different from what he had expected. It was in vain that the stout farmer set manfully to work, to counterbalance, by superior skill, the inconve- niences arising from a cold soil and a weeping cli- mate. These might have been probably overcome ; but his neighbourhood to the Grampians exposed him eternally to that species of visitation from the plaided gentry, who dwelt within their skirts, which made young Norval a warrior and a hero, but only converted Jasper Yellowley into a poor man. This was, indeed, balanced in some sort by the impres- sion which his ruddy cheek and robust form had the fortune to make upon Miss Barbara Clinkscale, TH£ PIRATE. 51 daughter to the umquhile, and sister to the then existing, Clinkscale of that ilk. This was thought a horrid and unnatural union in the neighhonrhood, considering that the house of Clinkscale had at least as great a share of Scottish pride as of Scottish parsimony, and was amply en- dowed with both. But Miss Babie had her hand- some fortune of two thousand marks at her own disposal, was a woman of spirit who had been major and sui juris ^ (as the writer who drew the contract assured her,) for full twenty years ; so she set con- sequences and commentaries alike at defiance, and wedded the hearty Yorkshire yeoman. Her brother and her more wealthy kinsmen drew o£F in disgust, and almost disowned their degraded relative. But the house of Clinkscale was allied (like every other family in Scotland at the time) to a set of relations who were not so nice — ^tenth and sixteenth cou- sins, who not only acknowledged their kinswoman Babie after her marriage with Yellowley, but even condescended to eat beans and bacon (though the latter was then the abomination of the Scotch as much as of the Jews) with her husband, and would willingly have cemented the friendship by borrow- ing a little cash from him, had not his good lady (who understood trap as well as any woman in the Mearns) put a negative on this advance to intimacy. Indeed she knew how to make young Deilbelicket, old Dougald Baresword, the Laird of Bandybrawl, jMid others, pay for the hospitality which she did not think proper to deny them, by rendering them use- ful in her negotiatiojtis with the lighthanded lads 52 THE PIRATE. beyond the Caivn, who, finding their late object of plunder was now allied to '< hend folks, and o wne4 by them at kirk and market," became satisfied, on a moderate yearly composition, to desist from their depredations. This eminent success reconciled Jasper to the dominion which his wife began to assume over him ;. and which was much confirmed by her proving ta be — let me see — what is the prettiest mode of ex- pressing it ? — in the family way. On this occasion^ Mrs Yellowley had a remarkable dream, as is the usual practice of teeming mothers previous to the birth of an illustrious o£Fspring. She *' was a-dream- ed,'' as her husband expressed it, that she was safe- ly delivered of a plough, drawn by three yoke of Angus-shire oxen ; and being a mighty investiga- tor into such portents, she sat herself down with her gossips, to consider what the thing might mean* Honest Jasper ventured, with much hesitation, to intimate his own opinion, that the vision had refe- rence rather to things past than things future, and might have been occasioned by his wife's nerves having been a little startled by meeting in the loan above the house his own great plough with the six oxen, which were the pride of his heart. But the good cummers* raised such a hue and cry against this exposition, that Jasper was fain to put his fin- gers in his ears, and to run out of the apartment. << Hear to him/' said an old whigamore carline — <« hear to him, wi' his owsen, that are as an idol t» *u e» GoBsipit THE PIRATE. .58 him, even as tbe calf of Bethel I Na, na — ^it 8 nae pleagh of the flesh that the bonny lad-bairn — for a lad it gall be — saU e*er striddle between the stills o' — ^it's the plough of the spirit — and I trust myseil to see him wag the head o' him in a pu'pit ; or, what's better, on a hill-side." " Now the deil's in your whiggery," said the old Liady Glenprosing; << wad ye hae our cummer's bonny lad-bairn wag the head aff his shouthers like your godly Mess James Guthrie, that ye hald such a davering about ? — Na, na, he sail walk a mair sic- carpath, and be a dainty curate — and say he should live to be a bishop, what the waur wad he be ?" The gauntlet thus fairly flung down by one sibyl, was caught up by another, and the controversy be- tween presbytery and episcopacy raged, roared, or rather screamed, around of cinnamon- water serving only like oil to the flame, till Jasper entered with the plough-stafi^ ; and by the awe of his presence, and the shame of misbehaving ** before the stranger man," imposed some conditions of silence upon the disputants. I do not know whether it was impatience to give to the light a being destined to such high and doubt- ful fates, or whether poor Dame Yellowley was ra- ther frightened at the hurly-burly which had taken place in her presence, but she was taken suddenly ill ; and, contrary to the formula in such cases used and provided, was soon reported to be ^< a good deal worse than was to be expected." She took the opportunity (having still all her wits about her) to extract from her sympathetic husband two pro- 54 THE PIRATE. mises ; first, that he wonld christen the child, whose birth was like to cost her so dear, by a name indi- cative of the vision with which she had been fa- voured ; and next, that he would educate him for the ministry. The canny Yorkshireman, thinking she had a good title at present to dictate in such matters, subscribed to all she required. A man-child was accordingly bom under these conditions, but the state of the mother did not permit her for. many days to enquire how far they had been complied with. When she was in some degree convalescent, she was informed, that as it was thought fit the child should be immediately christened, it had received the name of Triptolemus ; the Curate, who was a man of some classical skill, conceiving that this epithet contained a handsome and classical allusion to the visionary plough, with its triple yoke of oxen. Mrs Yellowley was not much delighted with the manner in which her request had been complied with ; but grumbling being to as little purpose as in the celebrated case of Tristram Shandy, she e'en sat down contented with the heathenish name, and endeavoured to counteract the efiTects it might pro\ g duce upon the taste and feelings of the nominee, by such an education as might put him above the slightest thought of sacks, coulters, stilts, mould- boards, or any thing connected wijh the servile drudgery of the plough. Jasper, sage Yorkshireman, smiled slyly in his sleeve, conceiving that young Trippie was likely to prove a chip of the old block, and would rather take after the jolly Yorkshire yeoman, than the gentle THE PIRATE. 55 but somewhat aigre blood of the bouse of Clink- scale. He remarked, with suppressed glee, that the tune which best answered the purpose of a lullaby was the *< Ploughman's Whistle/' and the first words the infant learned to stammer were the names of the oxen ; moreover, that the " hem" preferred home- brewed ale to Scotch twopenny, and never quitted hold of the tankard with so much reluctance as when there had been, by some manoeuvre of Jasper's own device, a double straik of malt allowed to the brew- ing, above that which was sanctioned by the most liberal recipe, of which his dame's household thrift admitted. Besides this, when no other means could be fallen upon to divert an occasional fit of squal- ling, his father observed that Trip could be always silenced by jingling a bridle at his ear. From all which symptoms he used to swear in private, that the boy would prove true Yorkshire, and mother and mother's kin would have small share of him. Meanwhile, and within a year after the birth of Triptolemus, Mrs Yellowley bore a daughter, named after herself Barbara, who, even in earliest infancy, exhibited the pinched nose and thin lips by which the Clinkscale family were distinguished amongst the inhabitants of the Meai*ns ; and as her childhood advanced, the readiness with which she seized, and the tenacity wherewith she detained, the playthings*of Triptolemus, besides a desire to bite, pinch, and scratch, on slight, or no provocation, were all considered by attentive observers as proofs, that Miss Babie would prove " her mother over again." Malicious people did not stick to say, that the acri- 56 THE PIRATE. mony of the Clinkscale bWd had not, on-dftk oo casion, been cooled and sweetened by that of OH. fkigland ; that yonng Deilbelicket was nmch about the house, and they could not bat diink it odd that Mrs YeUowley, who, as the whole world knew, gam nothing for nothing, should be so unoommonly attentive to heap the trencher, and to fill the cai^ «f an idle blackg^uard ne*er-do-weeL But when folk had once looked upon the austere and awfully virtuous countenance of Mrs Yellowley, they did full justice to her poropriety of conduct, and Deil- belicket's delicacy of taste. Meantime young Triptolemus, having received such instractions as the Carate could give him, (for though Dame Yellowley adhered to the persecuted remnant, her jolly husband, edified by the black gown and prayer-book, still conformed to the church as by law established,) was, in due process of time, sent to Saint Andrews to prosecute his studies. He went, it is true ; but with an eye turned back with sad remembrances on his father's plough, his father's pancakes, and his father s ale, for which the small* beer of the college, commonly there termed *' tho- rough-go-nimble,"furnished a poor substitute. Yet he advanced in his learning, being found, however, to show a particular favour to such authors of anti- quity as had made the improvement of the soil the object of their researches. He endured the Buco- lics of Virgil — the Georgics he had by heart — but the u^neid he could not away with ; and he was par- ticularly severe upon the celebrated line expressing a charge of cavalry, because, as he understood the THE PIRATC. 57 i word putremy* he opiai^ that tbe oomliataiits, ia their inoonsiderate ardour, galloped over a new-ma- mired ploughed field. Cato, the Roman Censor, was his favourite among daasical heroes and philoso- phers, not on acoount of the strictness of his morals, but because of his treatise, de Re RusUccl He had ever in his mouth the phrase of Cicero, Jam nemi' nem antepones CatonL He thought well of Palla- dius, and of Terentius Varro, but Columella was his pocket-companion. To these ancient worthies, he ^ded the more modern Tusser, Hartlib, and other writers on rural economics, not forgertting the Ineti- brations of the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and «uch of the better-informed Philomaths, who, in- stead of loading their almanacks with vain predic- tions of political events, pretended to see what seeds would grow and what would not, and direct the at- tention of their readers to that course of cultivation from which the production of good crops may be fiafely predicted ; modest sages, in fine, who, careless of the rise and downfall of empires, content them- selves with pointing out the fit seasons to reap and fiow, with a fair guess at the weather which each month will be likely to present ; as, for example, that if Heaven pleases, we shall have snow in Janu- ary, and the author will stake his reputation that July proves, on the whole, a month of sunshine. Now, although the Rector of Saint Leonard s was ^eatly pleased, in general, with the quiet, labori- ous, and studious bent of Triptolemus Yellowley> * Quadrupeddmqae pulreM iomiu'qaatit tragula (B^^anbK 58 THE PIRATE. and deemed him, in so far, worthy of a name of four syllables having a Latin termination, yet he relished not, by any means, his exclusive attention to his fa- vourite authors. It savoured of the earth, he said, if not of something worse, to have a man's mind al- ways grovelling in mould, stercorated or unsterco- rated ; and he pointed out, but in vain, history, and poetry, and divinity, as more elevating subjects of occupation. Triptolemus Yellowley was obstinate in his own course : Of the battle of Pharsalia, he thought not as it affected (he freedom of the world, but dwelt on the rich crop which the Emathian fields were likely to produce the next season. In vema* cular poetry, Triptolemus could scarce be prevailed upon to read a single couplet, excepting old Tusser, as aforesaid, whose Hundred Points of Good Hus- bandry he had got by heart; and excepting also Piers Ploughman's Vision, which, charmed with the title, he bought with avidity from a packman, but after reading the two first pages, flung it into the fire as an impudent and misnamed political libel. As to divinity, he summed that matter up by remind- ing his instructors, that to labour the earth and win his bread with the toil of his body and sweat of his brow, was the lot imposed upon fallen man ; and, for his part, he was resolved to discharge, to the best of his abilities, a task so obviously necessary to ex- istence, leaving others to speculate as much as they would, upon the more recondite mysteries of theo- With a spirit so much narrowed and limited to th€ concer&H of rural life, it may be doubted whe- THE PIRATE. 5d ther the proficiency of Triptolemus in learning, or the use he was like to make of his acquisitions, would have much gratified the amhitious hope of his affec- tionate mother. It is true, he expressed no reluc- tance to embrace the profession of a clergyman, which suited well enough with the habitual personal indo- lence which sometimes attaches to speculative dis- positions. He had views, to speak plainly, (I wish they were peculiar to himself,) of cultivating the glebe six days in the week, preaching on the seventh with due regularity, and dining with some fat frank- lin or country laird, with whom he could smoke a pipe and drink a tankard after dinner, and mix in secret conference on the exhaustless subject, Quid faciat Isetas segetes. Now, this plan, besides that it indicated nothing of what was then called the root of the matter, im- plied necessarily the possession of a manse ; and the possession of a manse inferred compliance with the doctrines of prelacy, and other enormities of the time. There was some question how far manse and glebe, stipend, both victual and money, might have outbalanced the good lady's predisposition to- wards Presbytery ; but her zeal was not put to so severe a trial. She died before her son had com- pleted his studies, leaving her afflicted spouse just as disconsolate as was to be expected. The first act of old Jasper's undivided administration was to recall his son from Saint Andrews, in order to ob- tain his assistance in his domestic labours. And here it might have been supposed that our Triptolemusi 60 THE PIrRAT& summoned to carry into practice what he IumL 99 fondly studied in theory, must have been, to use a «imiie which he would have thought lively, like * «ow entering upon a clover park. Alas, mistakea thoughts, and deceitful hopes of mankind I A laughing philosopher, the Democritus of our •day, once, in a moral lecture, compared human life to a table pierced with a number of holes, each of which has a pin made exactly to fit it, but which pins being stuck in hastily, and without selection, -chance leads inevitably to the most awkward mis- takes. " For how often do we see," the orator pa^ thetically concluded, — << how often, I say, do we see the round man stuck into the three-cornered hole I" This new illustration of the vagaries of fortune set every one present into convulsions of laughter, ex- cepting one fat alderman, who seemed to make the case his own, and insisted that it was no jesting mat- ter. To take up the simile, however, which is an excellent one, it is plain that Triptolemus Yellow- ley had been shaken out of the bag at least a hun*' dred years too soon. If he had come on the stage in our own time, that is, if he had flourished at any time within these thirty or forty years, he could not have missed to have held the office of vice-pre- sident of some eminent agricultural society, and to have transacted all the business thereof under the auspices of some noble duke or lord, who, as the matter might happen, either knew, or did not know> the difference betwixt a horse and a cart, and a cart- horse. He could not have missed such preferment^ ibr he was exceedingly learned in all those partir- THE PtRATE, 61 enlars, wbicli, being of no consequence in actual pracliee, go, of course, a great way to constitute tile character of a connoisseur in any art, and espe-^ eially in agriculture. But, alas ! Triptolemus Yel-^ lowley had, as we already have hinted, come inte> tile world at least a century too soon ; for, instead of sitting in an arm-chair, with a hammer in his- hand, and a bumper of port before him, giving forth the toast, — << To breeding, in all its branches," hi» father planted him betwixt the stilts of a plough, and invited him to guide the oxen, on whose beau- ties he would, in our day, have descanted, and whose rumps he would not have goaded, but have carved. Old Jasper complained, that although no one talk- ed so well of common and several, wheat and rape, fidlow and lea, as his learned son, (whom he always called Tolimus,) yet, " dang it," added the Seneca, " nought thrives wi* un — nought thrives wi' un I*'' It was still worse, when Jasper, becoming frail and ancient, was obliged, as happened in the course of a few years, gradually to yield up the reins of go- remment to the academical neophyte. As if Nature had meant him a spite, he had got one of the cUmrest and most intractable farms ia the Meams, to try conclusions withal, aplace which seemed to yield every thing but what the agricul- turist wanted; for there were plenty of thistles^, which indicates dry land ; and store of fern, which is said to intimate deep land ; and nettles, which show where lime hath been applied ; and deep fur- rows in the most unlikely spots, which intimated that it had been cultivated in former days by the- 62 THE PIRATE. Peghts, as popular tradition bore. There was also enough of stones to keep the ground warm, accord- ing to the creed of some farmers, and great abun- dance of springs to render it cool and sappy, ac- cording to the theory of othiers. It was in vain that, acting alternately on these opinions, poor Triptolemus endeavoured to avail himself of the supposed capabilities of the soil. No kind of butter that might be churned could be made to stick upon his own bread, any more than on that of poor Tus- ser, whose Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, so useful to others of his day, were never to himself worth as many pennies.* In fact, excepting an hundred acres of infield, to which old Jasper had early seen the necessity of limiting his labours, there was not a comer of the farm fit for any thing but to break plough-graith, and kill cattle. And then, as for the part which was really tilled with some profit, the expense of the farming establishment of Triptolemus, and his disposition to experiment, soon got rid of any good arising from the cultivation of it. ^< The carles and the cart-avers,'' he confessed, with a sigh, speaking of his farm-servants and horses, << make it all, and ' the carles and cart-avers eat it all ;'* a conclusion which might sum iip the year-book of many a gen- tleman farmer. * This is admitted by the English agriculturist :— " My mxuic since has been the plough* Entangled with some care among ; The gain not great, the pain enough* Hath made me ting another song." THE PIRATE. 63 ' Matters would have soon been brought to a close with Triptolemus in the present day. He would have got a bank-credit, manoeuvred with wind-bills, dashed out upon a large scale, and soon have seen his crop and stock sequestered by the SheriiF; but in those days a man could not ruin himself so easily* The whole Scottish tenantry stood upon the same level flat of poverty, so that it was extremely diffi- cult to find any vantage ground, by climbing up to which a man might have an opportunity of actually breaking his neck with some eclat. They were pret- ty much in the situation of people, who, being to- tally without credit, may indeed suffer from indi- gence, but cannot possibly become bankrupt. Be- sides, notwithstanding the failure of Triptolemus's projects,thel*e was to be balanced against the expen- diture which they occsisioned, all the savings which the extreme economy of his sister Barbara could effect ; and in truth her exertions were wonderful. She might have realized, if any one could, the idea of the learned philosopher, who pronounced that sleeping was a fancy, and eating but a habit, and who appeared to the world to have renounced both, until it was unhappily discovered that he had an intrigue with the cook-maid of the family, who in- demnified him for his privations by giving him pri- vate entr6e to the pantry, and to a share of her own. couch. But no such deceptions were practised by Barbara Yellowley. She was up early, and down late, and seemed, to her over-watched and over- tasked maidens, to be as tvakerife as the cat herself. Then, for eating, it appeared that the air was a 64 THE PIRATE. iNmqiiet to h«r, and she would fuin hare made it so to her retinue. Her brother, who, besides beings laay in h» person, was somewhat Inxurions in his appetite, would willingly now and then haTe tasted a raouthAil of animal food, were it bat to know how his sheep were fed off; but a proposal to eat a child eonld not have startled Mistress Barbara more ; and,' being of a compliant and easy disposition, Tripto- lemns reconciled himself to the necessity of a per- petual Lent, too happy when he conld get a scrap of butter to his oaten cake, or (as they lived on the banks of the Esk) escape the daily necessity of eat- ing* salmon, whether in or out of season, six days out of the seven. But although Mrs Barbara brought faithfully to the joint stock all savings which her awful powers of economy accomplished to scrape together, and although the dower of their mother was by degrees expended, or nearly so, in aiding them upon extreme occasions, the term at length approached when it seemed impossible that they could sustain the con- flict any longer against the evil star of Triptolemus, as he called it himself, or the natural result of his absurd speculations, as it was termed by others. Luckily at this sad crisis, a god jumped down to their relief out of a machine. In plain English, the noble lord, who owned their farm, arrived at his man- sion-house in their neighbourhood, with his coacb and six and his running footmen, in the full splen* dour of the seventeenth century. This person of quality was the son of the noble- man who had brought the ancient Jasper into the THE PIRATE. 65. country from Yorkshire, and he was, like his father, a fanciful and scheming man.* He had schemed well for himself, however, amid the mutations of the time, haying obtained, for a certain period of years, the administration of the remote islands of Orkney and Zetland, for payment of a certain rent, with the right of making the most of whatever was l^e property or revenue of the crown in these dis-. tricts, under'the title of Lord Chamberlain. Now, his lordship had become possessed with a notion, in. itself a very true one, that much might be done to render this grant available, by improving the cul- ture of the crown lands, both in Orkney and Zet- land ; and then having some acquaintance with our friend Triptolemus, he thought (rather less hap- pily) that he might prove a person capable of fur- thering his schemes. He sent for him to the great Hall-house, and was so much edified by the way in which our friend laid down the law upon every given subject relating to rural economy, that he lost no time in securing the co-operation of so va- luable an assistant, the first step being to release him from his present unprofitable farm. The terms were arranged much to the mind of Triptolemus, who had already been taught, by many * Government of Zetland. — At the period supposed, the Earls of Morton held the islands of Orkney and Zetland, origi- nally granted in 1643, confirmed in 1707, and rendered absolute in 1742. This gave the family much property and influence, ivhich they usually exercised by factors, named chamberlains. In 1766 this property was sold by the then Earl of Morton to Sir Lawrence Dundas, by whose son, Lord Dundas, it is now held. VOL. XXIV. E 66 THE PIRATE* years' experience, a dark sort of notion, that with#» ont underyalaing or doubting for a moment his own skill, it would be quite as well that almost all the trouble and risk should be at the expense of his employer. Indeed, the hopes of advantage which he held out to his patron were so considerable, that the Lord Chamberlain dropped erery idea of ad- mitting his dependent into any share of the expect- ed profits ; for, rude as the arts of agriculture were in Scotland, they were far superior to those known, and practised in the regions of Thule, and Tripto« lemus Yellowley conceived himself to be possessed of a degree of insight into these mysteries, far superior to what was possessed or practised even in the Meams. The improvement, therefore, which was to be expected, would bear a double propor- tion, and the Lord Chamberlain was to reap all* the profit, deducting a handsome salary for his steward Yellowley, together with the accommodation of a; house and domestic farm, for the support of his family. Joy seized the heart of Mistress Barbara^ at hearing this happy termination of what threat- ened to be so very bad an affsdr as the lease of Cauldacres. /< If we cannot," she said, << provide for our own house, when all is coming in, and nothing going out, surely we must be worse than infidels I*' Triptolemus was a busy man for some time, huff- ing and puffing, and eating and drinking in every ehangehouse, while he ordered and collected toge- ther proper implements of agriculture, to be usefi^, by the natives of these devoted islands^ whose doM^v .'r > > •; THE pirate; 6T tinies were menaced with this formidable change* Singular tools these would seem, if presented be- fore a modem agricultural society ; but every thing is relative, nor could the heavy cartload of timber^ called the old Scots plough, seem less strange to a Scottish farmer of this present day, than the cors- lets and casques of the soldiers of Cortes might «eem to a regiment of our own army. Yet the latter conquered Mexico, and undoubtedly the former would have been a splendid improvement on the state of agriculture in Thule. We have never been able to learn why Triptole- mns preferred fixing his residence in Zetland, to becoming an inhabitant of the Orkneys. Perhaps he thought the inhabitants of the latter Archipe* lago the more simple and docile of the two kin- dred tribes ; or perhaps he considered the situation of the house and farm he himself was to occupy, {which was indeed a tolerable one,) as preferable to that which he had it in his power to have obtained upon Pomona (so the main island of the Orkneys is entitled). At Harfra, or, as it was sometimes called, Stonrburgh, from the remains of a Pictisk fort, which was almost close to the mansion-house^ the factor settled himself, in the plenitude of his authority ; determined to honour the name he bore- by his exertions, in precept and example, to civi* lize the Zetlanders, and improve their very confined knowledge in the primary arts of human life« 68 THE PIRATE. CHAPTER V. The wind blew keen frae north and east ; It blew upon the floor. Quo* our goodman to our good wife, *' Get up and bar the door,** '' My hand is in my housewife-skep, Goodman, as ye may see ; If it shouldna be barr*d this hundred years, It*s no be barr*d for me !'* Old Song. We can only hope that the gentle reader has not found the latter part of the last chapter extremely tedious ; but, at any rate, his impatience will scarce equal that of young MordauntMertoun, who, while the lightning came flash after flash, while the wind, veering and shifting from point to point, blew with, all the fury of a hurricane, and while the rain was dashed against him in deluges, stood hammering, calling, and roaring at the door of the old Place of Harfra, impatient for admittance, and at a loss to conceive any position of existing circumstances, which could occasion the exclusion of a stranger, especially during such horrible weather. At length, finding his noise and vociferation were equally in vain, he fell back so far from the front of the house, as was necessary to enable him to reconnoitre the chimneys ; and amidst << storm and shade,'' could THE PIRATE. 69 discover, to tke increase of his dismay, that though tioon, then the dinner hour of these islands, was now nearly arrived, there was no smoke proceeding from the tunnels of the vents to give any note of preparation within. Mordaunt's wrathful impatience was now chan- ged into sympathy and alarm ; for, so long accns* tomed to the exuberant hospitality of the Zetland islands, he was immediately induced to suppose some strange and unaccountable disaster had be- fallen the family ; and forthwith set himself to discover some place at which he could make forci- ble entry, in order to ascertain the situation of the inmates, as much as to obtain shelter from the still increasing storm. His present anxiety was, how- ever, as much thrown away as his late clamorous importunities for admittance had been. Triptole- mus and his sister had heard the whole alarm without, and had already had a sharp dispute on the propriety of opening the door. Mrs Baby, as we have described her, was no will- ing renderer of the rites of hospitality. In their farm of Cauldacres, in the Meams, she had been the dread and abhorrence of all gaberlunzie men, and travelling packmen, gipsies, long remembered beggars, and so forth ; nor was there one of them so wily, as she used to boast, as could ever say they had heard the clink of her sneck. In Zetland, where the new settlers were yet strangers to the extreme honesty and simplicity of all classes, sus- picion and fear joined with frugality in her desire to exclude ail wandering guests of uncertain cha« 70 THE PIRATE. racter ; and the second of these motives had its effect on Trij»tolemas himself, who, though neither SQspicious nor penurions, knew good people were scarce, good farmers scarcer, and had a reasonahle share of that wisdom which looks towards self- preservation as the first law of nature. These hints may serve as a commentary on the following dialogue which took place betwixt the brother and sister. ** Now, good be gracious to us," said Triptole- mus, as he sat thumbing his old school-copy of Virgil, " here is a pure day for the bear seed l^^ Well spoke the wise Mantuan — ventis surgeniUmS"-^ mnd then the groans of the mountains, and the long- resounding shores — ^but where's the woods, Baby ? tell me, I say, where we shall find the nemarum mur^ muTy sister Baby, in these new seats of ours ?" « What*8 your foolish will ?" said Baby, popping^ ^er head from out of a dark recess in the kitchen^ where she was busy about some namdess deed of housewifery. Her brother, who had addressed himself to her ipiore from habit than intention, no sooner saw her bleak red nose, keen grey eyes, with the sharp features thereunto conforming, shaded by the flaps Qf the loose to^ which depended on each side of her eager face, than he bethought himself that his query was likely to find little acceptation from her, and therefore stood another volley before he would re- sume the topic. " I say, Mr Yellowley," said sister Baby, coming into the middle of the room, << what for are ye cry- THE PIRATE. VI ing on me, and me in the midst of my honsewife- skep r *< Nay, for nothing at all, Baby," answered Triptolemus, << saving that I was saying to myself, that here we had the sea, and the wind, and the rain, sufficient enough, but whereas the wood? Where's the wood. Baby, answer me that ?" « The wood ?" replied Baby — " Were I no to take better care of the wood than yon, brother, there would soon be no more wood about the town than the barber's block that's on your own shoulders^ Triptolemns. If ye be thinking of the wreck-wood that the callants brought in yesterday, there was six onnces of it gaed to boil your parritch this mcnning ; though, I trow, a carefu' man wad have ta'en dram- mock, if breakfast he behoved to have, rather than waste baith meltith and fuel in the same morning." << That is to say. Baby," replied Triptolemns^ who was somewhat of a dry joker in his way, *< that when we have fire we are not to have food, and when we have food we are not to have fire, these being too great blessings to enjoy both in the same day I Good luck, yon do not propose we should starve with cold and starve with hunger unico contextu. But, to tell yon the truth, I could never away with raw oatmeal, sleekened with water, in all my life. CaU it drammock, or crowdie, or just what ye list, my vivers must thole fire and water." " The mair gowk you," said Baby ; " can ye not make your brose on the Sunday, and sup them canld on the Monday, since ye're sae dainty ? Mony is 72 THE PIRATE. the fairer face than yours that has licked the lip after such a cogfu'." << Mercy on us, sister I** said Triptolemus ; <^ at this rate, it's a finished field with me — I must un- yoke the plough, and lie down to wait for the dead- thraw. Here is that in this house wad hold all Zet^ land in meal for a twelvemonth, and ye grudge a cogfu' of warmparritchtome, that has sic a charge !" << Whisht — hand your silly clavering tongue !" said Bahy, looking round with apprehension — << ye are a wise man to speak of what is in the house, and a fitting man to have the charge of it I — Hark, as I live by bread, I hear a tapping at the outer yett !" << Go and open it then, Baby," said her brother, glad at any thing that promised to interrupt the dispute. << Go and open it, said he !" echoed Baby, half angry, half frightened, and half triumphant at the superiority of her understanding over that of her brother — << Go and open it, said he, indeed ! — ^is it to lend robbers a chance to take all that is in the house ?" " Robbers I" echoed Triptolemus, in his turn ; << there are no more robbers in this country than there are lambs at Yule. I tell you, as I have told you an hundred times, there are no Highlandmen to harry us here. This is a land of quiet and ho- nesty. Ofortunati nimium /" << And what good is Saint Rinian to do ye, Toli- mus?" said his sister, mistaking the quotation for a Catholic invocation. << Besides, if there be no Highlandmen, there may be as bad. I saw sax or THE PIRATE. 73 seven as ill-looking chields gang past the Place yes- terday, as ever came frae beyont Clochna-ben ; ill- fa'red tools they had in their hands, whaaling knives they ca'ed them, but they looked as like dirks and whingers as ae bit aim can look like anither. There is nae honest men carry siccan tools." Here the knocking and shouts of Mordaunt were very audible betwixt every swell of the horrible Uast which was careering without. The brother And sister looked at each other in real perplexity and fear. << If they have heard of the siller," said Baby, her very nose changing with terror from red to blue, " we are but gane folk I" « Who speaks now, when they should hold their tongue ?" said Triptolemus. *<< Go to the shot- window instantly, and see how many there are of them, while I load the old Spanish-barrelled duck-gun — go as if you were stepping on new-laid eggs." Baby crept to the window, and reported that she saw only << one young chield, clattering and roaring as gin he were daft. How many there might be out of sight, she could not say." << Out of sight I — nonsense," said Triptolemus, laying aside the ramrod with which he was loading the piece, with a trembling hand. << I will warrant them out of sight and hearing both — this is some poor fellow catched in the tempest, wants the shel* ter of our roof, and a little refreshment. Open the door. Baby, it*s a Christian deed." << But is it a Christian deed of him to come in at the window, then?" said Baby, setting up a most doleful shriek, as Mordaunt Mertoun, who had M THE PIRATE. forced open one of the windows, leaped down into the apartment, dripping with water like a riyer god. Triptolemus, in great tribulation, presented the gon which he had not yet loaded, while the intruder exclaimed, '^ Hold, hold — ^what the devil mean you by keeping your doors bolted in weather like this, and levelling your gun at folk's heads as you would at a sealgh's ?" ^< And who are you, friend, and what want you?"* said Triptolemus, lowering the but of his gun to the floor as he spoke, and so recovering his arms* ^< What do I want !" said Mordaunt; << I want every thing — I want meat, drink, and fire, a bed for the night, and a sheltie for to-morrow mornings to carry me to Jarlshof." << And ye said there were nae caterans or somerg liere?" said Baby to the agriculturist, reproachfully. << Heard ye ever a breekless loon frae Lochaber tdU his mind and his errand mair deftly ? — Come, come, friend," she added, addressing herself to Mordaunt, ** put up your pipes and gang your gate ; this is the house of his lordship's factor, and no place of re- set for thiggers or somers." Mordaunt laughed in her face at the simplicity of the request. << Leave built waUs," he said, *^ and in such a tempest as this ? What take you me for ? —a gannet or a scart do you think I am, that your dapping your hands and skirling at me like a mad- woman, should drive me from the shelter into the atorm ?" *^ And BO you propose, young man," said Tripto- THE piuate. 75 lemuB, gravely, << to stay in my house, voleju nolens *— -that is, whether we will or no ?" "Willi" said Mordaunt; "what right have you to will any thing ahout it ? Do you not hear the thunder ? Do you not hear the rain ? Do you not see the lightning ? And do you not know this is the only house within I wot not how many miles ? Come, my good master and dame, this may he^ Scottish jesting, but it sounds strange in Zetland ears. You have let out the fire, too, and my teeth are dancing a jig in my head with cold ; but VU soon put that to rights." He seized the fire-tongs, raked together the em« bers upon the hearth, broke up into life the gather* ing'peat, which the hostess had calculated should have preservedthe seeds of fire,;without giving them^ forth, for many hours ; then casting his eye round, saw in a comer the stock of drift-wood, which Mis- tress Baby had served forth by ounces, and trans- ferred two or three logs of it at once to the hearth^ which, conscious of such unwonted supply, began to transmit to the chimney such a smoke as had not issued from the Place of Harfra for many a day. Whiletheir uninvited guest was thus makinghim- self at home. Baby kept edging and jogging the fac- tor to turn out the intruder. But for this under- taking, Triptolemus Yellowley felt neither courage nor seal, nor did circumstances seem at all to war- rant the favourable conclusion of any fray into which he might enter with the young stranger. The sinewy limbs and graceful form of Mordaunt Mertoun were seen to great advantage in his simple sea-dress ; and 76 THE PIRATE. with his dark sparkling eye, finely formed head, ani- mated features, close curled dark hair, and hold, free looks, the stranger formed a very strong contrast with the host on whom he had intruded himself. Triptolemus was a short, clumsy, duck-legged dis- ciple of Ceres, whose hot tie-nose, turned up and handsomely coppered at the extremity, seemed to intimate somethitig of an occasional treaty with Bac- chus. It was like to he no equal mellay hetwixt persons of such unequal form and strength ; and the difference hetwixt twenty and fifty years was no- thing in favour of the weaker party. Besides, the factor was an honest good-natured fellow at hottom, and heing soon satisfied that his guest had no other views than those of obtaining refuge from the storm, it would, despite his sister's instigations, have heen his last act to deny a boon so reasonable and neces- •sary to a youth whose exterior was so prepossess- ing. He stood, therefore, considering how he could most gracefully glide into the character of the hos- pitable landlord, out of that of the churlish defender of his domestic castle, against an unauthorized in- trusion, when Baby, who had stood appalled at the extreme familiarity of the stranger's address and demeanour, now spoke up for herself. << My troth, lad," said she to Mordaunt, << ye are no hlate, to light on at that rate, and the best of wood, too — nane of your shamey peats, but good aik timber, nae less maun serve ye I" << You come lightly by it, dame," said Mordaunt, carelessly ; << and you should not grudge to the fire what the sea gives you for nothing. These good THE PIRATE.' IT ribs of oak did tbeir last duty upon earth and ocean^. when they could hold no longer together under the brave hearts that manned the bark.*' << And that's true> too/' said the old woman, soft-* ening — << this maun be awsome weather by sea. Sit down and warm ye, since the sticks are a-low." ** Ay, ay," said Triptolemns, '< it is a pleasure to see siccan a bonny bleeze. I havena seen the like o't since I left Cauldacres." ^< And shallna see the like o*t again in a hurry,'' said Baby, " unless the house take fire, or there suld be a coal-heugh found out." << And wherefore should not there be a coal- heugh found out ?" said the factor, triumphantly — *^ I say, wherefore should not a coal-heugh be found out in Zetland as well as in Fife, now that the Chamberlain has a far-sighted and discreet man upon the spot to make the necessary perquisitions ? They are baith fishing-stations, I trow ?" " I tell you what it is, Tolemus Yellowley," an- swered his sister, who had practical reasons to fear her brother 8 opening upon any false scent, << if you promise my Lord sae mony of these bonnie-wallies, we'll no be weel hafted here before we are found out and set a-trotting again. If ane was to speak to ye about a gold mine, I ken weel wha would promise he suld have Portugal pieces clinking in his pouch before the year gaed by." " And why suld I not?" said Triptolemns — "may- be your head does not know there is a land in Ork- ney called Ophir, or something very like it ; and wherefore might not Solomon, the wise King of the. '78 THE PIRATE. .Jews, have sent thither his ships amd his servants for four hundred and fifty talents ? I trow he knew hest where to go or send^ and I hope yon heliere in your Bible, Baby ?" Baby was silenced by an appeal to Scriptnre^ however nud d proposy and only answered by an inarticulate humph of incredulity or scorn, while her brother went on addressing Mordannt. — << Yes, you shall all of you see what a change shall coin intro- duce, even into such an unpropitious country as yours. Ye have not heard of copper, I warranty nor of iron-stone, in these islands, neither ?'' Mor* daunt said he had heard there was copper near the Cliffs of Konigsburgh. <^ Ay, and a copper scum is found on the Loch of Swana, too, young man. But the youngest of you, doubtless, thinks himself 4i match for such as I am V Baby, who during all this while had been closely and accurately reconnoitring the youth's person, now interposed in a manner by her brother totally- unexpected. *< Ye had mair need, Mr Yellowley, to give the young man some dry clothes, and to see about getting something for him to eat, than to sit there bleezing away with your lang tales, as if the weather were not windy enow without your help ; and maybe the lad would drink some hlandy or sie* like, if ye had the grace to ask him." While Triptolemus looked astonished at such a proposal, considering the quarter it came from, Mordannt answered, he '< should be very glad to have dry clothes, but begged to be excused from drinking until he had eaten somewhat." THE PIRATE. 79' Triptolemug accordingly condacted him into an- other apartment, and accommodating him with a change of dress, left him to his arrangements, while he himself returned to the kitchen, much puzzled to account for his sister's unusual fit of hospitality* << She must he fey"* he said, << and in that case has not long to live, and though I fall heir to her tocher<« good, I am sorry for it ; for she has held the house* gear well together — drawn the girth over tight it maybe now and then, but the saddle sits the better/' When Triptolemus returned to the kitchen, he found his suspicions confirmed ; for his sister was in the desperate act of consigning to the pot a smo* ked goose, which, with others of the same tribe^ had long hung in the large chimney, muttering to berself at the same time, — <^ It maun be eaten sune or syne, and what for no by the puir callant T* ** What is this of it, sister ?" said Triptolemus. ^< You have on the girdle and the pot at ance. What day is this wi' you ?" << E'en such a day as the Israelites had beside the flesh-pots of Egypt, billie Triptolemus; but ye little ken wha ye have in your house this blessed day.'* " Troth, and little do I ken," said Triptolemus^ << as little as I would ken the naig I never saw be- fore. I would take the lad for a jagger,f but he bas rather o wer good havings, and he has no pack." * When a peraon changes his condition suddenly, as when a miser becomes liberal, or a churl good-humoured, he is said, in Scotch, to be,^ ,* that is, predestined to speedy death, of Which auch mutations of humour are received as a sure indication. •^ A. pedlar. 80 THE PIRATE. " Ye ken as little as ane of your ain bits o' nowt, man/' retorted sister Baby ; '< if ye kenna him^ do ye ken Tronda Dronsdaughter ?" << Tronda DronsdaughterT' echoed Triptolemns -— << how should I but ken her, when I pay her twal ' pennies Scots by the day, for working in the house here ? I trow she works as if the things burned her fingers. ^ I had better give a Scots ]ass a groat of English siller." '<< And that*s the maist sensible word ye have said this blessed morning. — Weel, but Tronda kens this lad weel, and she has often spoke to me about him. They call his father the Silent Man of Sumburgh, and they say he*s uncanny." ^< Ho at, bout — ^nonsense, nonsense — they are aye at sic trash as that," said the brother, << when you want a day's wark out of them — ^they have stepped ower the tangs, or they have met an uncanny body, or they have turned about the boat against the sun, and then there's nought to be (lone that day." " Weel, weel, brother, ye are sOvwise," said Baby, *' because ye knapped Latin at Saint Andrews ; and can your lair tell me, then, what the lad has round his halse ?" << A Barcelona napkin, as wet as a dishclout, and I have just lent him one of my own overlays," said Triptolemus. << A Barcelona napkin I" said Baby, elevating her Tt>ice, and then suddenly loweringit, as from appre- hension of being overheard — < can THE PIRATE. 83 bring you as safe off as if you had the wing of the gosshawk — ^this is indeed being almost independ- ent of the earth you tread on I" Triptolemus stared at this enthusiastic descrip- tion of an amusement which had so few charms for him ; and his sister, looking at the glancing eye and elevated bearing of the young adventurer, an- swered, by ejaculating, << My certie, lad, but ye are a brave chield I" « A brave chield T* returned Yellowley, — « I say a brave goose, to be flichtering and fleeing in the wind when he might abide upon terra firma ! But come, here's a goose that is more to the purpose, when once it is well boiled. Get us trenchers and salt, Baby — but in truth it will prove salt enough — a tasty morsel it is ; but I think the Zetlanders be the only folk in the world that think of running such risks to catch geese^. and then boiling them when they have done." " To be sure," replied his sister, (it was the only word they had agreed in that day,) <^ it would be an unco thing to bid ony gudewife in Angus or a' the Meams boil a goose, while there was sic things ^as spits in the warld. — But wha*s this neist I" she added, looking towards the entrance with great in^ dignation. << My certie, open doors, and dogs come in — and wha opened the door to him ?" << I did, to be sure," replied Mordaunt ; << you would not have a poor devil stand beating your deaf door-cheeks in weather like this ? — Here goes something, though, to help the fire," he added, that can add bitterness to the very storm !" The old domestic and the pedlar meanwhile ex- hausted themselves in entreaties to Noma, of which, us they were couched in the Norse language, the jnaster of the house understood nothing. She listened to them with a haughty and unmo- ved air, and replied at length aloud, and in English — << I will not. What if this honse be strewed in ruins before morning— where would be the world's want in the crazed projector, and the nigg^ardly pinch-commons, by which it is inhabited ? They will needs come to reform Zetland customs, let them try how they like a Zetland storm. — You that would not perish, quit this house I" The pedlar seized on his little knapsack, and be- gan hastily to brace it on his back ; the old maid- fiervant cast her cloak about her shoulders, and both seemed to be in the act of leaving the house as fast as they could. Triptolemus Yellowley, somewhat commoved by these appearances, asked Mordaunt, with a voice which faltered with apprehension, whether he thought there was any, that is, so very much danger? " I cannot tell," answered the youth, " I have scarce ever seen such a storm. Noma can tell us better than any one when it will abate ; for no one in these islands can judge of the weather like her.*' « And is that all thou thinkest Noma can do ?** said the sibyl ; ^* thou shalt know her powers dre THE PIRATE* 93" BOt bounded within such a narrow space. Hear me,. Mordannt, yonth of a foreign land, but of a friend* }j heart — IXost thou quit this doomed mansion with- those who now prepare to leave it ?" << I do not — I will not, Noma/' replied Mor- dannt; « I know not your motiye for desiring me^ to remove, and I will not leave, upon these dark threats, the house in which I have been kindly re- ceived in such a tempest as this. If the owners are- unaccustomed to our practice of unlimited hospita- lity, I am the more obliged to them that they have- relaxed their usages, and opened their doors in my behalf/' *^ He is a brave lad," said Mistress Baby, whose superstitious feelings had been daunted by the threats of the supposed sorceress, and who, amidst her eager, Harrow, and repining disposition, had, like all who possess marked character, some spark» of higher feeling, which made her sympathize with generous sentiments, though she thought it too ex- pensive to entertain them at her own cost — " He is a brave lad," she again repeated, << and worthy of ten geese, if I had them to boil for him, or roast either. I'll warrant him a gentleman's son, and no' churl's blood." << Hear me, young Mordannt," said Noma, << and depart from this house. Fate has high views on you —•you shall not remain in this hovel to be crushed' amid its worthless ruins, with the relics of its more worthless inhabitants, whose life is as little to the* world as the vegetation of the house-leek, whicL 94 THE PIRATE. now grows on their tbatcb, and which shall soon. be crushed amongst their mangled limbs." " I — I — I will go forth," said Yellowley, who, despite of his bearing himself scholarly and wisely, was beginning to be terrified for the issue of the adventure ; for the house was old, and the waild"^ rocked formidably to the blast. << To what purpose ?" said his sister. " I trust the Prince of the power of the air has not yet suchlike power over those that are made in God's image, that a good house should fall about our heads, because a randy quean" (here she darted a fierce glance at the Pythoness) << should boast us with her glamour, as if we were sae mony dogs to crouch at her bidding 1" << I was only wanting," said Triptolemus, ashamed of his motion, " to look at the bear-braird, which must be sair laid wi* this tempest ; but if this honest woman like to bide wi' us, I think it were best to let us a' sit doun canny thegither, till it's working weather again." " Honest woman I" echoed Baby — " Foul war- lock thief I — Aroint ye, ye limmer I" she added, ad- dressing Noma directly ; << out of an honest house, or, shame fa' me, but Fll take the bittle* to you I" Noma cast on her a look of supreme contempt ; then, stepping to the window, seemed engaged in deep contemplation of the heavens, while the old maid-servant, Tronda, drawing close to her mis- tress, implored, for the sake of all that was dear to * The beetle with whicli the Scottish housewives used to per- fhrm the office of the modern manji^le, by beating newly-washed liuen on a smooth stone for the purpose, called the beetling-stone. THE PIRATE. 95 man or woman, << Do not provoke Noma of Fitful- head I You have no sic woman on the mainland of Scotland — she can ride on one of these clouds as easily as man ever rode on a sheltie." << I shall live to see her ride on the reek of a fat tar-harrel/' said Mistress Bahy ; " and that will be a fit pacing palfrey for her.*' Again Noma regarded the enraged Mrs Baby Yellowley with a look of that unutterable scorn which her haughty features could so well express, and moving to the window which looked to the north-west, from which quarter the gale seemed at present to blow, she stood for some time with her arms crossed, looking out upon the leaden-coloured sky, obscured as it was by the thick drift, which, coming on in successive gusts of tempest, left ever and anon sad and dreary intervals of expectation be- twixt the dying and the reviving blast. Noma regarded this war of the elements as one to whom their strife was familiar; yet the stern serenity of her features had in it a cast of awe, and at the same time of authority, as the cabal ist may be supposed to look upon the spirit he has evoked, and which, though he knows how to subject him to his spell, bears still an aspect appalling to fiesh and blood. The attendants stood by in different atti- tudes, expressive of their various feelings. Mor- daunt, though not indifferent to the risk in which they stood, was more curious than alarmed. He had heard of Noma's alleged power over the elements, andnowexpected an opportunity of judgingfor him* self of its reality. Triptolemus Yellowley was con- 06 THE PIE ATE. founded at what seemed to be far beyond the bounds of his philosophy ; and, if the troth must be spoken, the worthy agricultorist was greatly more frighten- ed than ioquisitive. His sister was not in the least corions on the subject ; but it was difficult to say whether anger or fear predominated in her sharp eyes and thin compressed lips. The pedlar and old Tronda, confident that the house would neyer fall while the redoubted Norna was beneath its roof, held themselves ready for a start the instant she should take her departure. Haying looked on the sky for some time in a fixed attitude, and with the most profound silence, Noma at once, yet with a slow and elevated gesture, ex- tended her stafi^ of black oak towards that part of the heavens from which the blast came hardest, and in the midst of its fury chanted a Norwegian invo- cation, still preserved in the Island of Uist, under the name of the Song of the Reim-kennar, though some call it the Song of the Tempest. The follow- ing is a free translation, it being impossible to ren- der literally many of the elliptical and metaphorical terms of expression, peodiar to the ancient North- ern poetry : — 1. *' Stem eagle of the far north-west. Thou that bearest in thy grasp the thunderbolt, Thou whose rushing pinions stir ocean to madness. Thou the destroyer of herds, thou the scatterer of navies^ Thou the breaker down of towers. Amidst the scream of thy rage. Amidst the rushing of thy onward wings, Though thy scream be loud as the cry of a perisfaiDg natioii^ . '^Jt THE PIRATE/ 97 Though the mshiog of thy wings be like the roar of ten thou* sand waves, Yet hear, in thine ire and thy haste, Hear thou the Yoice of the Reim-kennar* 2. ^ Thon hast met the pine-trees of Drontheim, Their dark-green heads lie prostrate beside their aprooted stems; Thou hast met the r jder of the ocean, The tall, the strong bark of the fearless rover. And she has struck to thee the topsail That she had not veiled to a royal armada ; Thou hast met the tower that bears its crest among the cloads. The battled massive tower of the Jarl of former days, And the cope-stone of the turret Is lying upon its hospitable hearth ; But thou too shalt stoop, proud oompeller of clondaf, When thou hearest the voice of the Reim-kennai*. **■ There are verses that can stop the stag in the forest. Ay, and when the dark-coloured dog is opening on his track ; There are verses can make the wild hawk pause on the wing^ l«ike the falcon that wears the hood and the jesses. And who knows the shrill whistle of the fowler. Thou who canst mock at the scream of the drowning mariner^ And the crash of the ravaged forest, And the groan of the overwhelmed crowds. When the church hath fallen in the moment of prayer, There are sounds which thou also must list, When they are chanted by the Toice of the Reim-kennaiw 4. ^* Enough of woe hast thou wrought on the oceaiv The widows wring their hands on the beach ; Enough of woe hast thou wrought on the land. The husbandman folds his arms in despair; Cease thon the waving of thy pinions, liet the ocean repose in her dark strength ; Cease thou the flashing of thine eye. VOL. XXIV. O 98 THE PIRATE. liCt the thnnderlwlt sleep in the armoury of Odin ; Be thou still at my bidding, viewless racer of the north- weitera. heaven, Sleep thou at the voice of Noma the Reim-kennar !** • We have said that Mordaunt was naturally fond, of romantic poetry and romantic situation ; it is not therefore surprising that he listened with interest to the w;ild address thus uttered to the wildest wind of the compass, in a tone of such dauntless enthn** siasm. But though he had heard so much of the Ru- nic rhyme and of the northern spell, in the country where he had so long dwelt, he was not on this oc* casion so credulous as to helieve that the tempest, which had raged so lately, and which was now be-^ ginning to decline, was subdued before the charmed verse of Noma* Certain it was, that the blast seem-^ ed passing away, and the apprehended danger was . already over ; but it was not improbable that this issue had been for some time foreseen by the Py* thonesB, through signs of the weather imperceptible to those who had not dwelt long in the country, or had not bestowed on the meteorological phenomena the attention of a strict and close observer. Of Nor-„ na's experience he had no doubt, and that went a far way to explain what seemed supernatural in her demeanoui^. Yet still the noble countenance, half-' shaded by dishevelled tresses, the air of majesty with which, in a tone of menace as well as of com- mand, she addressed the viewless spirit of the tem- pest, gave him a sitrong inclination to believe in thef ascendency of the occult arts over the powers of na- THE PIRATE. &9 ture ; for, if a woman ever moved on earth to whom such authority over the ordinary laws of the uni* verse conld helong, Noma of Fitful-head, judging from hearing, figure, and face, was horn to that high destiny. The rest of the company were less slow in recei- ving conviction. To Tronda and the j agger none was necessary ; they had long helieved in the full extent of Noma's authority over the elements. But Triptolemus and his sister gazed at each other with wondering and alarmed looks, especially when the wind began perceptibly to decline, as was remark- ably visible during the pauses which Noma made betwixt the strophes of her incantation. A long si- ■ lence followed the last verse, until Noma resumed her chant, but with a changed and more soothing modulation of voice and tune. ** Eagle of the far north-western wtiten, Thou hast heard the voice of the Reim-kennar| Thou hast closed thy wide sails at her bidding, And folded them in peace by thy side. My blessing be on thy retiring path I When thou stoopest from thy place on high, Soft be thy slumbers in the caverns of the unknown ocean. Rest till destiny shall again awaken thee ; £agle of the north-west, thou hast heard the Toiee of the Rdm'* kennar!*' ** A pretty sang that would be to keep the com from shaking in har*st," whispered the agricultu- rist to his sister ; ** we must speak her fair. Baby —she will maybe part with the secret for a hundred f^und Scots." << An hundred fules' heads I'' replied Baby--«< Daft or wise," replied Yellowley, very much disconcerted, << she kens more than I would wish she kend. It was awfu' to see sic a wind fa* at the ▼oice of flesh and blood like oursells — and then yon about the hearth-stane — I cannot but think" * " If ye cannot but think," said Mrs Baby, very sharply, " at least ye can hand your tongue ?" The agriculturist made no reply, but sate down to their scanty meal, and did the honours of it with unusual heartiness to his new guest, the first of the intruders who had arrived, and the last who left them. The sillocks speedily disappeared, and the * Test upon it, t. e. leave it in my will ; a mode of bestowing charity, to which many are partial as well as the good dame in the text. f Although the Zetlanders were early reconciled to the re- formed faith, some ancient practices of Catholic superstition survived long among them. In very stormy weather a fisher would vow an oramus to Saint Ronald, and acquitted himself of the obligation by throwing a small piece of money in at the window of a ruinous chapel. 106 .TH£ PIRATE. smoked goose, with its appendages, took wing ao effectaaUy, that Tronda, to whom the polishing of the hones had heen destined, fpand the task accom* plished, or nearly so, to her hand. After dinner^ the host produced his hottle of hrandy ; hat Mor- daunt, whose general hahits were as abstinent al- most as those of his father, laid a very light tax upon this unusual exertion of hospitality. Daring the meal, they learned so much of young Mordaunt, and of his father, that even Bahy resist- ed his wish to reassume his wet garments, and pressed him (at the risk of an expensive suppfr being added to the charges of the day) to tarry with them till the next morning. But what Noma had said excited the youth's wish to reach home, nor^ however far the hospitality of Stourhurgh was- extended in his behalf, did the house present any particular temptations to induce him to remain thet*e longer. He therefore accepted the loan of the factor's clothes, promising to return them, and send for his own ; and took a civil leave of his host and Mistress Baby, the latter of whom, however affect- ed by the loss of her goose* could not but think the cost well bestowed (since it was to be expended at all) upon so handsome and cheerful a youth. THE PIRATE. 107 CHAPTER VII. « She does no work by balves, yon raving ocean ; Bngulfing those sbe strangles, her wild womb Affords the mariners whom she hath dealt on, Their death at once, and sepulchre. Old Pla^, > There were ten << lang Scots miles" betwixt Stourbargh and Jarlshof ; and though the pedeik trian did not number all the impediments which crossed Tarn o* Shanter*s path, — for in a country where there are neither hedges nor stone enclosuref^ there can be neither << slaps nor stiles," — ^yet the number and nature of the *< mosses and waters"^ whichhe had to cross in his peregrination, was fully sufGicient to balance the account, and to render Us journey as toilsome and dangerous as Tam o' Shan- ter s celebrated retreat from Ayr. Neither witdi nor warlock crossed Mordaunt*s path, however. The length of the day was already considerable, and he arrived safe at Jarlshof by eleven o'clock at night. All was still and dark round the mansion, and it was not till he had whistled twice or thrice beneath Swertha*s window, that she replied to the signal. At the first sound, Swertha fell into an agree- able dream of a young whale-fisher, who some forty .years before used to make such a signal beneath the window of her hut; at the second, she waked to 108 THE PIRATE. remember that Jolmnie Fea had slept souid among the frozen waves of Greenland for this many a year, and that she was Mr Mertoun*s governante at Jarls* hof ; at the third, she arose and opened the window. <aught of Noma of the Fit- fal-head ? She went to Stourburgh this morniiigy and returned to the town at night." . << Returned! — then she is here ? How could she travel three leagues and better in so short a time ?" * " Wha kens how she travel*?*' replied Swertha ; *^ but I he9.rd her tell the Ranzelman wi* my ain lugs, that she intended that day to have gone on to Burgh- Westra, to speak with Minna Troil, but she had seen that at Stourburgh, (indeed she said at Harfra, for she never calls it by the other name of Stourburgh,) that sent her back to our town. But gang your ways round, and ye shall have plenty of supper — ours is nae toom pantry, and still less a locked ane, though my master be a stranger^ and no just that tight in the upper rigging, as the Ranzelman says." Mordaunt walked round to the kitchen accord- ^gly^^^^ere Swertha's care speedily accommodated him. with a plentiful, though coarse meal, which in- demnified him for the scanty hospitality he had experienced at Stourburgh. In the morning, some feelings of fatigue made young Mertoun later than usual in leaving his bed ; no that, contrary to what was the ordinary case, he found his father in the apartment where they eat, and which served them indeed for everv common purpose, save that of a bedchamber or of a kitchen. The son greeted the father in mute reverence, and waited until he should address him. *^ Yon were absent yesterday, Mordaunt ?" said 110 THE PIRATE. Ids father. Mordaunt's absence had lasted a week itiid more ; hut he had often ohserved that his fa^ ther never seemed to notice how time passed daring the period when he was affected with his sullen Vapours. He assented to what the elder Mr Mer- toun had said. ** And yon were at Burgh-Westra, as I think ?'* continued his father. " Yes, sir," replied Mordaunt. The elder Mertoan was then silent for some time, and paced the floor in deep silence, with an air of somhre reflection, which seemed as if he were about to relapse into his moody fit. Suddenly turn* ing to his son, however, he observed, in the tone of a query, << Magnus Troil has two daughters — ^they must be now young women; they are thought handsome, of course ?** «« Very generally, sir," answered Mordaunt^ rather surprised to hear his father making any eu' quiries about the individuals of a sex which he usually thought so light of, a surprise which was inuch increased by the next question, put as abrupt-* ly as the former. " Which think you the handsomest ?" *< I, sir?" replied his son with some wonder, but without embarrassment — « I really am no judge— I never considered which was absolutely the hand- somest. They are both very pretty young women." << You evade my question, Mordaunt ; perhaps I have some very particular reason for my wish to be acquainted with your taste in this matter. I anl not used to waste words for no purpose. I ask you THE PIRATE. Ill again, wbich of Magnus Troll's daughters you think most handsome ?** "Really, sir," replied Mordaunt — " hut you only jest in asking me such a question." " Young man," replied Mertoun,with eyes which began to roll and sparkle with impatience, " I never jest« I desire an answer to my question." " Then, upon my word, sir," said Mordaunt, " it is not in my power to form a judgment betwixt the young ladies — they are both very pretty, but by no means like each other. Minna is dark-haired, and more grsLve than her sister — more serious, but by no means either dull or sullen." " Um," replied his father; " you hare been grave- ly brought up, and this Minna, I suppose, pleases you most ?" " No, sir, really 1 can give her no preference over her sister Brenda, who is as gay as a lamb in a spring morning — ^less tall than her sister, but so well formed, and so excellent a dancer" . « That she is best qualified to amuse the young man, who has a dull home and a moody father ?"* said Mr Mertoun. Nothing in his father's conduct haderer surprised Mordaunt so much as the obstinacy with which he seemed to pursue a theme so foreign to his general tFEun of thought, and habits of conversation ; but he contented himself with answering once more, "that both the young ladies were highly admirable, but lie had never thought of them with the wish to do eilher injustice, by ranking her lower than her sister —-that others would probably decide between them, 112 THE PIRATE* as they happened to he partial to a grave or a gay disposition, or to a dark or fair complexion ; bnt that he could see no excellent quality in the one that was not halanced by something equally capti- yating in the other.** It is possible that even the coolness with which Mordaunt made this explanation might not have ^ satisfied his father concerning the subject of inves- tigation ; but Swertha at this moment entered with breakfast, and the youth, notwithstanding his late supper, engaged in that meal with an air which satisfied Mertoun that he held it matter of more grave importance than the conversation which they had just had, and that he had nothing more to say upon the subject explanatory of the answers lie had already given. He shaded his brow with his hand, and looked long fixedly upon the young man as he was busied with his morning meal. There was nei^ ther abstraction nor a sense of being observed in any of his motions ; all was frank, natural, and open. *' He is fancy-free,** muttered Mertoun to himself «— << so young, so lively, and so imaginative, so hand- some and so attractive in face and person, strange^ that at his age, and in his circumstances, he shovdd have avoided the meshes which catch all the world beside T* When the breakfast was over, the elder Mertoun, instead of proposing, as usual, that his son, who awaited his commands, should betake himself to one branch or other of his studies, assumed his hat and staff, and desired that Mordaunt should accompany him to the top of the cliff, called Sumbargh-head>. TH£ PIRATEb 118 and from thence look out upon the state of the ocean, agitated as it must still be by the tempesl^of the preceding day. Mordaunt was at the age when young men willingly exchange sedentary pursuits for active exercise, and started up with alacrity to comply with his father's desire ; and in the coarse of a few minutes they were mounting together ^he Idlly which, ascending from the land side in a long, .steep, and grassy slope, sinks at once from the sum- mit to the sea in an abrupt and tremendous preci- pice. The day was delightful ; there was just so much motion in the air as to disturb the little fleecy clouds which were scattered on the horizon, and by float- ing them occasionally over the sun, to chequer th0 landscape with that variety of light and shade which often gives to a bare and unenclosed scene, for the time at least, a species of charm approaching to the varieties of a cultivated and planted country. A thousand flitting hues of light and shade played .over the expanse of wild moor, rocks, and inlets, which, as they climbed higher and higher, spread in wide and wider circuit around them* The elder Mertoun often paused and looked round upon the scene, and for some time his son supposed that he halted to enjoy its beauties ; but as they ascended still higher up the. hill, he remarked his shortened breath and his uncertain and toilsome step, and became assured, with some feelings of alarm, that his father's strength was, for the moment, ex*- Iiausted, and that he found the ascent more toilsome andfatiguing than usual. To draw dose to his side^ VOL. xxiv. H 114 was iEdl that Mordaunt could do for his assistance, whilst he anxiously looked for some one who might lend lus aid in dragging the unfortunate to a more •safe situation. At this moment he beheld a man advancing slow** ly and cautiously along the beach. He was in hopes, at first, it was his father, but instantly recollected that he, had not had time to come round by the cir- cuitous descent, to which he must necessarily have recourse, and besides, he saw that the man who apr preached him was shorter in stature. As he came nearer, Mordaunt was at no loss-to 426 ^H£ PIRATE. recognise the pedlar whom the day before he had tnet with at Harfra, and who was known to him before upon many occasions. He shouted as loud tis he could, << Bryce, hollo I Bryce, come hither I" But the merchant, intent upon picking up some of the spoils of the wreck, and upon dragging them out of reach of the tide, paid for some time little attention to his shouts. When he did at length approach Mordaunt, it *wa8 not to lend him his aid, but to remonstrate Ifrith him on his rashness in undertaking the chari- table office. << Are you mad ?" said he ; << you that have lived sae lang in Zetland, to risk the saving of a drowning man ? Wot ye not, if you bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you some capital injury? * — Come, Master Mordaunt, bear a hand to -what's mair to the purpose. Help me to get ane t>r twa of these kists ashore before any body else comes, and we shall share, like good Christians^ •what God sends us, and be thankful.*' Mordaunt was indeed no stranger to this inhu- man superstition, current at a former period among the lower orders of the Zetlanders, and the more generally adopted, perhaps, that it served as an apo«- iogy for refusing assistance to the unfortunate vic- tims of shipwreck, while they made plunder of their goods. At any rate, the opinion, that to save a drowning man was to run the risk of future injury from him, formed a strange contradiction in the tsharacter of these islanders ; who, hospitable, ge^ ' * Note II., p. 137. Relactaiice to Save I>rownlDg Men. THE PIRATE. 12t lierons, and disinterested, on all other occasions^ were sometimes, nevertheless, induced by this sa-' perstition, to refuse their aid in those mortal emer- gencies, which were so common upon their rocky and stormy coasts. We are happy to add, that thd exhortation and example of the proprietors havd leradicated even the traces of this inhuman belief^ of which there might be some observed within the memory of those now alive. It is strange that the minds of men should have ever been hardened to** wards those involved in a distress to which they themselves were so constantly exposed ; but per- haps the frequent sight and consciousness of such danger tends to blunt the feelings to its conse# quences, whether affecting ourselves or others. Bryce was remarkably tenacious of this ancient belief ; the more so, perhaps, that the mounting of his pack depended less upon the warehouses of Ler- wick or Kirkwall, than on the consequences of such a north-western gale as that of the day preceding • for which (being a man who, in his own way, pro- fessed great devotion) he seldom failed to express his grateful thanks to Heaven. It was indeed said of him, that if he had spent the same time in assist- ing the wrecked seamen, which he had employed in rifling their bales and boxes, he would have saved many lives, and lost much linen. He paid no sort of attention to the repeated entreaties of Mordaunt, although he was now upon the same slip of sand with him. It was well known to Bryce as a place on which the eddy was likely to land such spoils as the ocean disgorged ; and to improve the favourable! 128 THE PIRATE. juoment, he occupied himself exclusively in securing' and appropriating whatever seemed most portable and of greatest value. At length Mordaunt saw the honest pedlar fix his views upon a strong sea* chest, framed of some Indian wood, well secured by brass plates, and seeming to be of a foreign con« fitruction. The stout lock resisted all Bryce'i efforts to open it, until, with great composure,^ he plucked from his pocket a very neat hammer and chisel, and began forcing the hinges. Incensed beyond patience at his assurance, Mor- daunt caught up a wooden stretcher which lay near him, and laying his charge softly on the sand, ap- proached Bryce with a menacing gesture, and exclaimed, << You cold-blooded, inhuman rascal! either get up instantly and lend me your assistance to recover this man, and bear him out of danger from the surf, or I will not only beat you to a mum- my on the spot, but inform Magnus Troil of your thievery, that he may have you flogged till your bones are bare, and then banish you from the Main- land I" The lid of the chest had just sprung open as this rough address saluted Bryce's ears, and the inside presented a tempting view of wearing apparel for sea and land ; shirts, plain and with lace ruffles, a silver compass, a silver-hilted sword, and other valu- able articles, which the pedlar well knew to be such as stir in the trade. He was half-disposed to start up, draw the sword, which was a cut-and-thrust, and << darraign battaile," as Spenser says, rather than quit his prize, or brook interruption* Being, THE PIRATE. 129 though shorti a stout square-made personage, and not much past the prime of life, having besides the better weapon, he might have given Mordaunt more trouble than, his benevolent knight-errantry deser- ved. Already, as with vehemence he repeated his in- junctions that Bryce should forbear his plunder, and come to the assistance of the dying man, the pedlar retorted with a voice of defiance, << Dinna swear, sir ; dinna swear, sir — I will endure no swearing in my presence ; and if you lay a finger on me, that am taking the lawful spoil of the Egyptians, I will give ye a lesson ye shall remember from this day to Yule I" Mordaunt would speedily have put the pedlar's courage to the test, but a voice behind him sud- denly said, " Forbear 1". It was the voice of Noma of the Fitful-head, who, during the heat of their altercation, had approached them unobserved. << Forbear !" she repeated ; " and, Bryce, do thou render Mordaunt the assistance he requires. It shall avail thee more, and it is I who say the word, than all that you could earn td-day besides." *^ It is se'enteen hundred linen,*' said the pedlar, giving a tweak to one of the shirts, in that know- ing manner with which matrons and judges as- certain the texture of the loom ;— << it*s se'enteen hundred linen, and as strong as an it were dowlas. Nevertheless, mother, your bidding is to be done ; and I would have done Mr Mordaunt's bidding too," he added, relaxing from his note of defiance into the deferential whining tone with which he cajoled big. VOL. XXIV. I 130 THE PIRATE. cnstomerSy << if he hadna made use of profane oaths, which made my very flesh grew, and caused me, in some sort, to forget myself." He then took a flask from his pocket, and approached the shipwrecked man. << It's the hest of brandy," he said ; << and if that doesna cure him, I ken nought that will/' So saying, he took a preliminary gulp himself, as if to «how the quality of the liquor, and was about to put it to the man's mouth, when, suddenly with- holding his hand, he looked at Noma — ** You en- sure me against all risk of evil from him, if I am to render him my help ? — Ye ken youn^ what folk say, mother." For all other answer. Noma took the bottle from the pedlar's hand, and began to chafe the temples and throat of the shipwrecked man; directing Mordaunt how to hold his head, so as to afibrd him the means of disgorging the sea-water which he had swallowed during his immersion. The pedlar looked on inactive for a moment, and then said, << To be sure, there is not the same risk in helping him, now he is out of the water, and lying high and dry on the beach ; and, to be sore, the principal danger is to those that first touch him ; and, to be sure, it is a world's pity to see how these rings are pinching the puir creature's swalled fingers — ^they make his hand as blue as a partan's back before boiling." So saying, he seized one of the man's cold hands, which had just, by a tremulous motion, indicated the return of life, and began his charitable work of removing the rings, which seemed to be of some value. THE PIRATE. 131 "As you love your life, forbear," said Noma,